It all comes down to this.
The Ivy League title, an NCAA Tournament bid and bragging rights will all be on the line tonight at the Palestra. Added to that, it's Penn-Princeton.
For the second straight season, the Quakers volleyball team will have a chance to clinch the outright Ivy League title on its home court.
If Penn (19-6, 12-1 Ivy) wins its season finale, the Quakers will secure their place atop the Ivies. However, if Princeton (18-6, 11-2) is able to take the match, then the Tigers will equal Penn for the best record in the Ancient Eight.
A tie would force a playoff with the Quakers on Saturday to determine the recipient of the Ancient Eight's automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
"Princeton is a great team," Quakers senior Meghan Schloat said. "But I feel like something we have accomplished in the past couple of years is that we know their game and we know how to beat them."
The Red and Blue have not lost to Princeton since the 2001 season when they were downed by the Tigers, 3-2, at the Palestra. However, in each of the three matches since then, the Tigers have grabbed at least one game.
Along with matches against Harvard and Cornell, Princeton was among the toughest teams Penn faced during Ivy League play. The two squads squared off to open the Ancient Eight season on Oct. 3 and Penn prevailed, 30-26, 30-24, 23-30, 30-26 -- but both teams have come a long way since the early matchup.
"We'll go into the game knowing that they have definitely improved," senior Heather Janssen said. "They obviously have a great record, so defensively we're just going to look to put up a solid block and let our players dig around that."
In the first meeting, the statistics for the two teams were relatively close as the Quakers had only five fewer errors and 11 more kills. With so much riding on each point, the match may be determined by intangibles.
"I think we just got to come out with the right mindset," senior Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan said. "We've got to be ready for their scrappy play, we've got to be ready for all their individual players and we've got to just know that we're going to go for every ball."
The Quakers defense has improved since they first met the Tigers and it could be the key component that pushes them over the top.
"I think their biggest offensive threat is their outside hitters so we have really been practicing defending against good outsides and playing tough defense," freshman libero Meredith Damore said.
"I think our defense has improved immensely since we saw them last, so I think they'll be taken by surprise a little bit and we'll take them out of their offense hopefully with some tough defense."
Penn will also have an advantage playing at the Palestra where they are 10-1 this season. However, Princeton is 5-1 on the road in the Ivies.
Although the Quakers are not satisfied this year with just making the NCAA Tournament, they must get past the Tigers to even have a chance to achieve their loftier goals.
"We don't want to look past the game, though, we want to make sure that we stay focused and get the job done," Janssen said. "We just want to take care of the game and not let the game get out of hand."
The Red and Blue refuse to take Princeton lightly but feel that if they play their game they will prevail.
"We know we have the better team, we have more talent, we have better coaching," Schloat said. "So I think that it's just a question of bringing our A-game and taking care of them nice and quickly."
