Motivated PU women enjoyed record-setting season in Ivies

After 20-win season, volleyball prepares for NCAAs

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Lindsey Ensign never worried about the Princeton University women’s volleyball team becoming complacent or overconfident on its way to an Ivy League championship.
   Not after last year’s late-season slip-up.
   ”Last year we had a chance,” Ensign said, “but because our team was so young, maybe because of the lack of maturity, we ended up losing two big games. We came back with a vengeance.”
   The junior middle blocker, who Tuesday was named a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League player, was a key part of the Tigers’ record-setting run. Princeton became the first team in Ivy history to put together a 14-0 season (Brown was 7-0 in 1998 before teams played each other twice). They closed it out with a 3-1 win over Penn last Wednesday. It also marked their 20th straight win overall as they improved to 22-3 overall.
   ”If it was easy to do, someone would have done it before,” said PU head coach Glenn Nelson, the winningest Tigers coach in any sport with 562 career victories. “I don’t think anyone has even been 13-1 before.”
   Even as the wins piled up, it wasn’t hard for the Tigers to stay focused. Not after last year.
   ”The fact that last year, two of our three loses were to teams in the middle of the pack, that was something we felt if we won those matches, we would have been Ivy champions,” Nelson said. “We managed to beat Yale and Cornell. But we lost to Brown and Dartmouth, who were getting beaten up by the better teams. I think that kept us on our guard all year.”
   There was no stopping the Tigers, who dominated Ivy play this season, so much so that nearly half the All-Ivy team is wearing Orange and Black. Ensign led the conference in hitting percentage, ranked third in kills and her .428 hitting percentage ranks eighth nationally. She was also a first-team All-Ivy player last year. In addition to Ensign, Parker Henritze was unanimously named Ivy League Player of the Year and setter Bailey Robinson also made the first team. All three are juniors on a team that includes just two seniors.
   ”Overall our team chemistry has been great,” Ensign said. “It’s been really awesome how when one person isn’t playing that well, the rest of us will rise to the occasion. It’s almost like we’re one big family and we mesh with each other.
   ”I can’t take any individual credit,” she added. “We work so well together. We’re like a big machine. I try to have as much enthusiasm as possible and get everyone fired up and hopefully we do well when we play.”
   The Tigers have almost two weeks of meshing from their last game against Penn to their NCAA Tournament opener. The nationals field will be announced Sunday.
   ”With our winning streak we have, we definitely have a lot of confidence going into the tournament,” Ensign said. “We want to be a little higher than some Ivy teams have been in the past. Hopefully we’ll be matched up with someone a little less than Penn State and Nebraska, who are 1 and 2, so we can have some success and go farther than any other Ivy team before us.
   ”I definitely think we can win. Our talent has really shown in the Ivy League. When we’re matched up against other Division I teams, I think we’ll be able to surprise other teams with what we can do.”
   It will be a stiff test, regardless of who the Tigers draw. But it’s a challenge this team is as prepared for as any.
   ”Depending on who our first-round opponent is,” Nelson said, “we could get to the second round. When you get in the top 30, you’re talking big-time scholarship schools. We’d be in over our heads. We’d have to play incredible defense and take advantage of every opportunity.”
   The Tigers certainly were not going to let the opportunity to win another Ivy crown slip away after falling one win shy of it last season. The title is the Tigers’ 11th under Nelson, 14th in program history.
   ”Going into season,” Ensign said, “we knew we had a pretty good chance of winning. Because of that, we knew there was a lot of pressure on us. Every other team in the Ivy League wanted to beat us. We ended up playing through it.”
   Last year stayed close to the hearts of the returning core. Princeton started last season strong in Ivy play, but fizzled down the stretch. They never forgot that feeling.
   ”We went into it being 11-0,” Ensign said. “I think we got a little overconfident. We lost to a team that wasn’t that good. Then we lost another one to another team that wasn’t that good. Then it came down to the last match against a champion.”
   This year’s team wouldn’t let such a collapse happen. It’s Ivy season began with a terse 3-2 win over Penn. It ended with a 3-1 win over the Quakers and 12 wins in between.
   ”They just find a way to win,” Nelson said. “Even when they’re not playing well, like when it gets tight at Penn in the fourth game last Wednesday.”
   For two months the Tigers have been unbeaten. They have not lost since Sept. 14. This season has fulfilled every imaginable expectation.
   ”It still hasn’t really hit me yet,” Ensign said. “I’ve been expecting it all season. Now that it’s finally happened, I guess I won’t really understand it until the season it totally over and we’re done with the NCAA Tournament. Now that it’s over, we’re trying to see how far we can get in the tournament.”
   Win or lose in the NCAAs, the Tigers’ place in history has been cemented with a 14-0 run.
   ”I’m on record as saying they’re the best team ever,” Nelson said. “I felt early on they could sink to a level of some other teams we’ve had. But those teams could never play at this level if they’re playing their best.”