Thriller In Dillon! Fifth-Set Comeback Sends Princeton Volleyball To Victory, Another Sends It To NCAAs!

Friday, November 11

Princeton, N.J.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

18-4, 12-1Ivy

Cornell

11-12, 5-8Ivy

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Cornell	18	25	23	25	10	2
Princeton	25	23	25	16	15	3

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Thriller In Dillon! Fifth-Set Comeback Sends Princeton Volleyball To Victory, Another Sends It To NCAAs!

November 11, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

There haven't been many 30-minute stretches as dramatic as the one Dillon Gym experienced Friday night. Once trailing 5-0 in the fifth set and staring at a tie atop the Ivy League standings, the Princeton women's volleyball thrilled a capacity crowd with a 15-5 run to stun a feisty Cornell squad and clinch a share of the Ivy League title.

Minutes later, they gathered around a phone to share the final points of a fifth-set match in Boston. When Harvard completed a comeback of its own to finish off a 3-2 win over Yale, the Tigers screamed in joy one more time.

They were the outright Ivy League champions. And for the first time since 2007, they were going back to the NCAA Championships.

Senior Cara Mattaliano, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, led the Tigers with 21 kills, while junior Caroline Sklaver had the best match of her career when Princeton needed it most. The Tiger middle, playing for injured senior Brittany Ptak, recorded 12 kills and hit .348 in the comeback win. Freshman Maggie O'Connell, the four-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week, added 13 kills and hit .370, while classmate Devon Peterkin added 11 kills and 14 digs.

Peterkin's biggest contribution of the match came from the service line, where she took the ball with Princeton down 9-6 inside a quiet Dillon Gym. Her pressure serve kept the Cornell offense off balance, and the Tigers got a block by Sklaver and freshman setter Jessie Harris, and then three straight Mattaliano kills gave the Tigers a 10-9 lead. A Harris solo block and a Sklaver kill opened a 12-9 lead, and sophomore middle Nnenna Ibe ultimately finished the match with a block and a kill.

The Tigers celebrated the comeback and the shared Ivy League title, but then word began to spread in Dillon that Harvard and Yale were in a tight fifth set. The Tigers gathered around the scoring table as members of the men's team announced updates via their live stats feed. When word came down that Harvard closed out the match 15-13, Princeton celebrated one more time.

Princeton will close its regular season Saturday night at 5 pm when it hosts Columbia. The Tigers will honor the senior trio of Mattaliano, Ptak and setter Lauren Miller, who provided several key serves for the Tigers in their Ivy-clinching win.