Princeton volleyball sweeps past Morris in postseason tune-up

MORRIS – Although Princeton will compete in Class 2A in the upcoming volleyball postseason, squaring off against a 3A opponent in a nonconference match against Morris on Monday night wasn’t out of the ordinary.

“Most of the teams we play, especially nonconference teams, are 3A,” said Caroline Keutzer, who led the Tigeresses (19-14) to a 25-20, 25-23 win with eight kills, four digs and two aces. “Playing a tough schedule like that has really helped us.

“We played Morris in the summer and lost, so this was a good win for us. We kind of knew where they were going to set the ball, and they set it right into our block a lot of the time. We were able to get our hands on a lot of their attacks, and when they tipped, our backline did a great job of bringing the ball back up.”

The Tigresses also got eight digs and eight points, including an ace, from libero Camryn Driscoll, while Keiglhey Davis and Ellie Harp each had three kills. Makayla Hecht had 21 assists to go with two kills and four digs.

After the first set was tied 5-5, the Tigers went on a 6-1 run to move out to an 11-6 lead, which they never relinquished. During the stretch, the Tigers got a kill and an ace from Davis and a kill from Kathy Maciczak, while Morris (17-15-1) made three hitting errors.

Morris was able to use some hot hitting from Tessa Shannon, who led all players with 14 kills, to pull to within 23-19, but Princeton was able to stymie the threat and put the set away.

“We played clean, and we played free,” Princeton coach Andy Puck said. “This one didn’t mean anything as far as conference or seeding, so we just wanted to come out loose and just play. We schedule quality programs like Morris to help us prepare for the postseason, and this should help.

“All of the girls played well. If what we wanted to do wasn’t there we adjusted, and the girls did their jobs and found a way to win. Our setter [Hecht], whose parents are from Morris, did a great job of spreading the ball around, and the girls in the frontline did a good job of focusing on their go-to hitter. We also served well, which helped out a lot.”

In the second set, Morris got out to a 7-3 lead after an ace by Karson Dransfeldt and a block by Hannah Linn. Princeton got two aces from Keutzer and two kills by Hecht to tie it. It was also tied at 8, 9 and 10 before the Tigresses went on a 5-0 run on a block each by Maciczak and Keutzer, two kills by Keutzer and one by Harp, to move out to a 15-10 lead. Morris kept fighting and closed to 24-23 before a kill by Keutzer ended the match.

Alexis Williams had 21 assists on the night for Morris, while Rosemary Misener had three kills and three blocks. Alyssa Jepson had 15 digs.

“Princeton did a good job of making us one-dimensional tonight,” Morris coach Scott Howell said. “We are in kind of a funk lately, and it’s due to a lot of unforced errors, either serving errors or attack errors. We had a lot of those again tonight.

“We have a couple more matches this week to get things ironed out. I know these girls can do it. We show signs of it, but we just haven’t been able to sustain it for very long. It’s all in the mindset. We as coaches know they can do it. They have to believe in themselves and their teammates.

“Most of our losses have been because of unforced errors. We really haven’t been blown away by what the other team is doing on their side of the net. How things go on our own side of the net has been the issue. If we can improve on our unforced errors, we can hopefully make a postseason run.”