Tigers volleyball’s 20-game win streak is over
By Zachary Braziller, Special Writer
QUEENS, N.Y. — The Princeton University women’s volleyball team beat athletic opponents and taller opponents this season — just not ones that had both of those invaluable qualities.
The Tigers were unable to adjust when facing that very team.
The University of Delaware, the Tigers’ first-round NCAA Tournament opponent, used each of those qualities to knock off the Ivy League champions, 3-1 (24-30, 32-30, 30-27, 30-22), Friday afternoon at St. John’s University’s Carnesecca Arena.
”Ultimately, they were big and athletic and we’re just athletic,” senior setter Bailey Robinson said. “So it’s hard to battle that out and come out on top.”
It proved to be too tall a hurdle to climb. Unable to build upon winning the first game, Princeton’s 20-match winning streak ended in disappointing fashion.
The Tigers are still searching for their first tournament win after falling to the CAA champions. The Blue Hens are big up front, with five starters 6-foot or taller. It wasn’t just that size — Ivy League opponents like Penn and Yale are that big. But the combination of having those extra inches with the same ability to track down kills and finish off swings was too much to handle.
Delaware had four players with double-digit kills, including team leader Kelly Gibson, who finished with team highs of 19 kills and 20 digs. Michelle LaLonde, a 6-foot-2 middle, and 6-foot outside Colleen Walsh were just as effective, combining 23 kills Overall, the Blue Hens had 12 teams blocks.
”Their size was definitely a factor,” Princeton coach Glenn Nelson said.
Furthermore, the Tigers uncharacteristically failed to finish off their own chances. Their three prime hitters — Lindsey Ensign, Sheena Donohue and Parker Henritze — combined for 53 of Princeton’s 59 kills, but the team hit at a composite .132 for the match, far below their season average of .261. Princeton also let a pair of game balls go by the boards, points that would have given them a 2-0 lead in games.
”When you all talked to me before the match was going to take place, I said we were going to have to be able to convert our opportunities, because we’ll create them,” Nelson said. “We’ll dig enough balls to create those opportunities for ourselves and ultimately what happened was we didn’t convert enough of them. You got to give them credit, they’re better defensively than I thought they would be.”
”We were characterized by winning close games,” added Robinson, the NCAA leader in assists who finished with 51 and 17 digs. “We fight back and don’t look back. Normally we would’ve taken that second game. And I think we ran up against a team that was able to kind of cut off our momentum in the second game and build off that.”
Despite the sudden ending, there was still a lot to celebrate for Princeton. The Tigers won 20 straight matches, including all 14 in league, claimed their 14th Ivy League crown, had five players selected to the All-Ivy first team — including Henritze, the Player of the Year, and made Nelson the school’s all-time leader in wins.
”I don’t think it can change anything of our season,” Robinson said. “We accomplished everything and more than we expected in the Ivy League season, got the award for coach. So you take away all those good things and you come to the tournament and set the bar a little higher. The fact that we didn’t (win here) doesn’t take anything away from the first 10, 12 weeks of the season at all for me.”

