NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale volleyball team won its third straight Ivy League title with a 3-2 victory over Princeton on Saturday evening.
With the win, the Bulldogs will play at Princeton on Friday in a one-match playoff to determine the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The match will start at 7 p.m.
The victory capped a perfect home season for the Bulldogs, who finished 9-0 at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. The scores of the match were 16-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-21 and 17-15.
Tonight's victory marked the 11
th Ivy League Volleyball championship in Yale program history, and the 10
th for head coach
Erin Appleman.
Ellis DeJardin led the charge with 14 kills, nine digs and five total blocks, including four solo. Team captain
Izzy Simqu had 10 kills and nine blocks in her final home match, while fellow senior
Frances Arnautou 45 assists, nine digs, five kills and five blocks.
The Bulldogs hit .478 in the final set and made key play after key play to capture a share of the league title. In fitting fashion, Arnautou and Simqu in their last match in New Haven delivered match point with block assists.
Trailing 10-6,
Samantha Bray started a run 5-1 to tie the set at 11-11. Nemeth and Bray followed with block assists, and Bray had another kill coupled with two Princeton errors.
Princeton scored the next two points of the fifth, DeJardin added another kill. The Tigers scored next to force match point and DeJardin responded with two straight kills to tie the set at 14-14.
Arnautou and Simqu added a block assist to give the Bulldogs the lead. Princeton knotted the set one more time before Simqu delivered another kill – followed by match point from seniors Arnautou and Simqu.
The Bulldogs rebounded after the first set with late-set playmaking and a key 5-0 run. It started with a kill from DeJardin, block assists from Simqu and Arnautou and another kill from Simqu. DeJardin tied the set at 21-21 and
Kathryn Attar gave the Bulldogs the lead with a kill on the next point. DeJardin wrapped up the set with an ace to tie the match at one set each.
Yale forced the fifth set after DeJardin and
Bonnie Bostic had three kills each.
Maile Somera had five digs in the set and 15 in the match.
