MATCH STATS
- Dartmouth defeats Princeton, 3-2 (25-19, 25-23, 16-25, 16-25, 15-11)
- Dartmouth improves to 10-13; Princeton drops to 17-7
- Hanover, New Hampshire
- Attendance: 316
- Box Score
HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth Big Green won a five set thriller on Saturday night, defeating the Princeton Tigers in a rollercoaster of a match in Leede Arena. If Princeton would have prevailed, they would have been awarded the first bid to the NCAA tournament.
Dartmouth hit .238 on the night, with a .577 hitting percentage in the first set. Even though they won the match, they were outhit by Princeton, at a .256 clip. The Big Green out-blocked the Tigers 12-10.
Dartmouth setter Tori Dozier totaled 44 assists and 9 digs, to go with five kills and seven block assists. On the other side of the net, Jessie Harris notched 58 assists and 10 digs for a double-double, and three block assists.
Three Dartmouth players posted double-figure kills in Mallen Bischoff with 14 kills and nine digs on a .312 clip, Tola Akinwumi tabbed 12 kills on an impressive .474 hitting percentage, and Sara Lindquist also had 12 kills.
Princeton’s offense was led by Nnenna Ibe, who had 16 kills on a .667 hitting percentage. Maggie O’Connell posted 14 kills, hitting .235.
Princeton will face Yale for the Ivy League title next weekend.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy of Dartmouth Athletics
HANOVER, N.H. – It took five sets, but the Dartmouth volleyball team ended the 2017 season in dramatic fashion, defeating Princeton, 3-2 (25-19, 25-23, 16-25, 16-25, 15-11).
The Big Green wrapped up their season on a two-match winning streak with an overall record of 10-13 and 6-8 in Ivy League play, while the Tigers dipped to 17-7 and 10-4, still earning a share of the Ivy title with Yale. The last time Dartmouth defeated Princeton was on Oct. 3, 2015.
“What a great weekend we had to finish our season,” head coach Gilad Doron said. “Obviously, seeing the team grow these last couple weeks is remarkable. Seeing different players stepping up was awesome. Tori, Mallen and Lauren were really good, and Zoe played great defense. We talked a lot about resiliency and grit and today, we really had to dig deep, but we did it. This was a big victory for us.”
Sophomore Tori Dozier had a career-high 44 assists and seven block assists, while freshman Lauren Douglas led the team with 15 digs and classmate Mallen Bischoff had 14 kills. Sophomore Carly Tower was second with six block assists and freshman Tola Akinwumi had a .474 hitting percentage and some huge kills. In the final match of her career, senior Sara Lindquist was second with 12 kills and also had one dig and one solo block.
The Big Green got off to a good start in set one, winning the first two points off a Bischoff kill and a Tiger error. Princeton caught up and remained close until a three-point run off kills by Akinwumi and junior Samantha Bozoian and a service ace by Douglas made it a 13-7 set. From there, the Big Green only got further ahead, ending the set on a Bozoian kill (25-19).
Set two was closer, with 13 ties, but still had the same result as the first set. With Princeton ahead, 22-21, a three-point Dartmouth run following kills by Bozoian and Bischoff and a Tiger error made it set point in the Green’s favor (24-22). Princeton got one point closer, but one more error gave Dartmouth a 2-0 edge (25-23).
The third set was very close until the end. With the Tigers two points ahead (14-12), a 7-0 run gave Princeton a 21-12 advantage. Dartmouth got just three more points off two errors and a Lindquist kill before the Tigers shut the set down (25-16). Set four was a similar story and a 9-1 run put Princeton up, 18-8. A plethora of errors on the other side of the net helped Dartmouth get a little closer, but the score was soon tied at two sets apiece (25-16).
The Big Green had a 3-0 lead to start the fifth thanks to a kill by Akinwumi and two Princeton errors. Dartmouth remained a few points ahead throughout the majority of the set, but two in a row for the Tigers got them within one (11-10). Two Bischoff kills and an error made it match point (14-10) and, after one more Princeton kill, a kill by Tower ended the match.
Courtesy of Princeton Athletics
A pair of five-set matches provided such a thrilling conclusion to the Ivy League regular season, even if it wasn’t the one Princeton hoped for when the night began.
Regardless, a Princeton team that trailed Yale by two matches with only five to play will have the chance to play itself into the NCAA Tournament for a seventh time next weekend. Dartmouth kept Princeton from clinching Saturday night by fighting off a Tiger rally with a 15-11 win in the fifth set; minutes later, Yale finished off a 3-2 road win of its own to grab a share of the Ivy League title. Yale will host the match next weekend (time/date TBA) due to a 4-3 advantage in head-to-head sets won this season.
Princeton, which found itself down 2-0 before winning back-to-back 25-16 sets, had a balanced offensive attack. Five players had double-digit kills, including junior middle Nnenna Ibe, who hit .667 (16-2-21) and added four blocks in the match. Natasha Skov came off the bench with 15 kills, while Maggie O’Connell followed up her brilliant Friday night performance at Harvard with a 14-kill effort at Dartmouth. Caroline Sklaver (11) and Devon Peterkin (10) also pushed the offense, which was paced by Ivy assists leader Jessie Harris, who had 58 Saturday night.
Peterkin and Underwood both had 11 digs, while Sklaver had six blocks during the night.
Leave a Reply