After fast start, Volleyball tamed by Tigers

The Penn volleyball team's match against Princeton had gotten off to a promising start. The Quakers, cheered on by a large crowd and the Penn band, had survived the loss of all-Ivy setter Heather Glick to a poked eye in jumping out to a 14-10 lead in the first game. Then disaster struck. Penn had five consecutive unforced errors that allowed the Tigers to get back in the game, which they won 16-14. The obvious letdown from the first game was carried over to the remaining two. Despite Glick's return, Princeton won 15-6 and 15-4, disposing of Penn 3-0. The Quakers (8-7, 3-2 Ivy League) fell to the middle of the Ivy standings while defending champion Princeton (13-1, 5-0) secured its hold on first place. "It's a terrible quality to have in a team when you let the effects of a game carry over," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "It's something that we have to work on." The loss of Glick for the first two games, after she was poked in the eye by teammate Susan Sabatino, could have been disastrous, but sophomore Heather Tillet filled in with consistent, mistake-free play. Tillet's play did not contribute to Penn's problems, so much so that Feeney was willing to leave her in after Glick was ready to go back on the court. "I felt pressure at first, but I was also confident," Tillet said. "I knew that I had no room for errors." Penn's demise was instead due to the same problems that have plagued it throughout the season. Once again the Red and Blue was not able to put away a team when it had the game under control. Penn's play was also very inconsistent, as the high level of play attained in the first game was nowhere to be seen in the final two. "We just lost it mentally in the final two games," Tillet said. "We can beat them. We just have to be stronger mentally." It also didn't help the Quakers that Princeton was able to raise its play in the final two games after getting off to a shaky start. Tigers setter Kristin Spataro competently guided the Princeton offense and also contributed two big aces in the third game, which eliminated all chances of a Penn comeback. The Tigers' frontcourt combination of Stephanie Edwards and Ayesha Attoh racked up 19 kills, as Penn had trouble blocking the duo all night. "Princeton ran a great offense, they attacked everything," Feeney said. "They dictated what we were able to do." The pluses were few, if any, on the Penn side. The team's play was sloppy, as the errors piled up throughout the match. Penn's service game was very weak, with only three aces against seven errors. "Certain things that we were counting on did not go well in the match," Glick said. "We had been serving well all year until today." The Quakers find themselves in the middle of the Ivy pack now. In order to secure one of the much-desired top seeds for the Ivy tournament, Penn will have to rely on its Ivy foes to knock off the teams ahead of them. If these two teams do meet again in the Ivy tournament, there is little doubt as to what Penn must do to win. "We need to play consistently through the entire match," Feeney said. With a young team like the Quakers, highs and lows can be expected. In order for Penn to win the title, the highs reached in the first game against Princeton will have to be sustained throughout an entire tournament.