Princeton 3, Penn 0
In a battle of first-place teams, freshman Kellie Cramm came up big Friday night to lead Princeton to a 3-0 win over Penn and a share of the Ivy lead with Cornell. Cramm's 22 kills were twice as many as the leading Quaker player, Kelly Szczerba, who had 11.
The first game offered little competition as Princeton easily won, 15-6. In the second game, Penn rebounded with a determined effort from the start, but again succumbed to the dominating play of the Tigers, this time by a 15-9 margin.
The Quakers refused to fold, however. In the final game, they mustered enough strength to explode out of the gates with a 6-0 lead. The two teams battled back and forth to a 12-12 tie.
Penn thought it had won the game, 15-13, but the down referee made a controversial call that voided the point. Blessed with a second chance, the Tigers took advantage of it and downed Penn 16-14.
A big part of Princeton's successful outing was their staunch defense. The squad logged 10 team blocks and 69 digs, 12 of which came from captain Sabrina King. Also, Ana Yoerg had 46 kills on the night.
Szczerba had 12 digs for Penn, which falls to a second place tie with Dartmouth at 3-2 in Ivy play (17-7 overall). Princeton owns 14-6 record overall, with a 4-1 record in the Ivies.
Yale 3, Brown 1
In a closely contested match, Stephanie McMahon drilled 17 kills to help Yale overcome Brown Friday night, 3-1. Additionally, McMahon had only three errors on the night.
Yale came out hot, opening up a 10-5 lead, before Brown regrouped and fought back the Bulldogs to tie the game at 10. The two teams struggled for a while without scoring any points before Yale came out on top, 15-11, thanks to a quick 5-1 run.
In the second game, it was the Bears' turn to take the early lead, and they did just that, by mounting a formidable 12-5 streak. The Bulldogs made an outstanding comeback, however, and were bring the teams to a 13-13 deadlock. They then closed out the game, 15-13.
Yale's momentum carried over to the next game and the Bulldogs took a 4-0 lead. Brown refused to back down and it brought the game to 8-8. This time, it wasn't the Bulldogs who broke the tie; rather, the Bears went on a 7-1 tear to carry the game to a 15-9 conclusion in their favor.
The final game saw Brown take the early 5-2 lead before the momentum shifted back to Yale, and for the fourth time, the teams were tied midway or late into the game, this time at eight. Again, the Bulldogs prevailed under pressure and pulled away, eventually winning, 15-10.
Carissa Abbott helped out significantly with 15 kills and five blocks while Dana Loberg contributed 15 digs for the 13-6 Bulldogs (2-3 Ivy) who are now two games out of first place with two to play.
Diane Schneider led Brown with 16 kills and four others had kills in the double-digits. Laurel Brisco scored a double-double with 19 digs and 12 kills. Brown now stands in last place in the conference with Columbia with a 1-4 record (9-10 overall).
Cornell 3, Albany 0
Cornell had a busy but successful weekend at the Albany Invitational, winning both of its matches with relative ease and taking the tournament title. The Big Red defeated Albany 3-0 and then dropped its only game in a 3-1 win over Stony Brook.
Robin Moore took home MVP honors after becoming Cornell's all-time kills leader with 1,075 in her four years of play. The old mark was owned by Becky Merchant, who recorded 1,052 kills from 1987-89.
Albany folded in three games without offering a serious threat, 15-10, 15-6, 15-7. Moore led both teams with 16 kills while Jennifer Borncap added nine. Liz Condon led Cornell with 14 digs.
Alissa Gibbs had 12 kills and 14 digs for Albany, which had a .198 hit percentage for the match, compared to .327 for Cornell.
Cornell 3, Stony Brook 1
Cornell's second opponent of the day offered a little more of a challenge, but even they couldn't slow the cruising Big Red. Stony Brook lost swiftly in the first game 15-8, but managed to recover and stun Cornell in the second game by the same margin. The Seawolves were unable to keep the Big Red at bay for long though, and Cornell made up for the loss by winning the last two games in routs, 15-5, 15-5.
Moore again had 16 kills in the match to lead her team while Borncap followed with 12 and added a match-high 17 digs. Stony Brook had four players notch six, seven, or eight kills and Jamie O'Conner had 10 digs to lead the team on defense.
Cornell (14-6, 4-1) closes out Ivy League play with two huge games this weekend against Princeton and Penn, both of which are on the road.
