Volleyball Wins Five-Set Thriller Over Princeton

Saturday, October 30

Hanover, N.H.

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

12-7,4-6Ivy League

Princeton

13-5,7-3Ivy League

Princeton

Dartmouth

Taite Ryan

Photo by: John and Matt Risley

Volleyball Wins Five-Set Thriller Over Princeton

10/30/2021 8:05:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Highlights

Ellie Blain finished off the win with a kill and an ace

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — With the fifth set knotted at 14 apiece, Dartmouth sophomore Ellie Blain rattled off a kill then served up an ace to send the Big Green volleyball team to victory over visiting Princeton on Saturday night at Leede Arena, 26-24, 25-14, 14-25, 14-25, 16-14. Junior Taite Ryan led Dartmouth (12-7, 4-6 Ivy) with 14 kills and added a personal-best 24 digs for her third double-double of the season, while Emma Montgomery of the Tigers (13-5, 7-3 Ivy) led all players with 21 kills to go with 20 digs.

"What a team battle tonight," said head coach Gilad Doron following the match. "I though we started the match much better today and we played flawlessly in the second game. We knew Princeton would respond and they did. I am proud of the team that we showed the resiliency in game five we have been working on and found a way to make big plays to seal the win. Our defence tonight was great and gave us multiple second and third chances. It always feels great to win both weekend matches, and I hope our team continues to build and grow for the rest of the season."

Neither team could take control during the first half of the first set with the two sides separated by no more than two points. Although Princeton was able to build up a 17-13 advantage, Dartmouth roared back by taking seven of the next eight points for a 20-18 lead. The pendulum swung back toward the Tigers as they went back up, 23-21, the Big Green ripped off three straight points and Princeton tied the score at 24. But when sophomores Amelia Gibbs and Karen Murphy put away kills for Dartmouth, the Green had a 1-0 lead in the match.

The second set belonged to Dartmouth as produced 14 kills with only a single error. But the tide turned as Princeton came back with strong performances in the third and fourth sets to force the decisive fifth set.

The Tigers got an early advantage at 6-4 due to a couple of Big Green misfires followed by a Montgomery kill. Dartmouth was able to tie the score at six, seven and then eight before Ryan put one away for a 9-8 lead. A pair of Gibbs kills helped open up a 13-10 edge, only to have Princeton swat three consecutive kills to tie it up at 13. The two teams traded points setting up Blain's heroics to finish off the victory.

Joining Ryan with double-digit kills were Blain (13), Gibbs (11) and sophomore Bomi Ogunlari (10), while freshman libero Emma Engstrom recorded a team-best and season-high 32 digs.

With four wins in the last five matches, Dartmouth will hit the road for matches at Cornell (6-12, 2-8 Ivy) and Columbia (5-15, 2-8 Ivy) on Friday and Saturday evenings, respectively. Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Notes: The Big Green ended a personal five-game slide against Princeton with the win tonight … this was Dartmouth's first weekend sweep of Penn and Princeton in four years and just the fourth since 2000 … the Green collected a season-high 101 digs, their most since posting 120 against Penn back in 2016.