The Penn volleyball team was on a roll last night at the Palestra, and nothing -- not the emotions of Senior Night, not a determined Princeton team and not even a Tiger invasion of Penn's home court -- could stop the Red and Blue.
The Quakers won the Ivy League championship outright and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year with an emotional, 30-28, 30-20, 27-30, 30-20, triumph over archrival Princeton.
A raucous crowd set the tone for a match played at a feverish pace. Over half of those fans were Tiger partisans who made the one-hour drive from New Jersey and threatened to turn the match into a Princeton home game.
It didn't matter.
On a night that was designed to honor the seniors -- who were playing at home for the final time -- it was Penn's quartet of four-year veterans who once again provided the difference.
At match point, senior Heather Janssen's serve was misplayed, and the senior class hoisted the league championship trophy for the third straight time.
"To be able to have all four of my seniors as starters, that's a dream for a coach," Penn coach Kerry Major Carr said. "It wasn't a gift on Senior Night -- they are my starters, and they won it for us tonight. It's awesome."
It appeared early on that the fired-up Quakers would run the Tigers right out of the building, as they won seven of the game's first eight points. To Princeton's credit, the Tigers weathered the early storm and came back to tie the game at 27.
But six kills from sophomore Cara Thomason and the spectacular defense of senior Meghan Schloat (match-high 56 assists) were too much to overcome. The Tigers' fifth serve error of the game finished off a 30-28 win for the home team.
Penn started off sluggishly in game two but turned it on towards the end. Once again, it was the seniors who led the charge. Three resounding kills, the first two by senior Lauren "Wiley" Carter, the last by Janssen, capped a 30-20 win.
But if the Quakers thought this one was going to be easy, they underestimated the caliber of their opponent and the level of its fans' devotion.
Princeton supporters began to show up en masse at the end of game two, and with them came a change in momentum.
The Quakers actually jumped to a 20-14 lead in game three behind dominant play from Janssen, who finished the game with 17 kills, eight digs and four blocks. But the Tigers began to outplay a Penn team that may have been smelling victory a bit prematurely.
With their fans getting rowdier and the team gaining confidence on every point, Princeton finally caught up to the Quakers at 25 apiece. The Tigers' Brittany Wood put an end to a beautifully played point by both teams with a kill that gave Princeton game three, 30-27
But the Quakers maintained their composure -- despite Princeton's revitalization -- never lost confidence and seemed to welcome the challenge.
"Did the amount of Princeton fans bother us? No, not so much," Schloat said. "We're good at tuning them out. We could have come back and won that game, but we knew what the outcome of the [match] was going to be. We knew we were gonna win."
After starting game four slowly, Penn backed up that confidence with a 21-10 lead in the fourth.
Once again, the Tigers showed the type of character they have as a team, cutting the deficit to 26-20 led by Kellie Cramm, who had a match-high 19 kills.
But an emphatic block by Michelle Kauffman and Carter, followed by Kauffman's third kill of the match, set the stage for Janssen's championship-winning serve.
After the match, the jubilant three-time champions spoke of the teamwork and togetherness that have allowed them to take Penn volleyball to the next level.
"We have the aggression, the communication and the emotional stability, I have to say," Schloat said.
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