Volleyball: Princeton dances past Bureau Valley

MANLIUS – Andy Puck thought his Princeton volleyball team needed a little spark.

The Tigresses dropped the opening set to rival Bureau Valley 28-26 Tuesday at the Storm Cellar and were floundering a bit in the second set.

He brought some excitement of his own into the huddle, breaking out some dance moves that may not have reminded anyone of John Travolta, but served the moment well.

With some new-found energy, the Tigresses outscored the Storm 15-3 to claim the second set 25-14 and finished off the Three Rivers Conference East Division victory with a 25-17 win in the third game.

“That was old school. I used to do that (dance) all the time. My kids actually would use to initiate it themselves, but now I have to initiate it. And I even asked them, ‘Are we dancing?” And they’re like, ‘no, we’re good,’” he said.

“I don’t care how bad it looks, as long as it produces some energy. People can laugh at me all they want.”

Princeton improved to 7-2 in conference, 9-14 overall.

The tide began to turn quickly in the second set as the Tigresses broke a 11-11 tie with an 7-1 run to go up 18-12.

Princeton sided out at 19-14 and Morgan Foes struck for a shot down the sideline in front of the BV bench. Sophomore Mia Bucchini served out the final six points, including three aces, to finish off the 25-14 win.

Senior Olivia Gartin took over for the Tigresses in the third set with her hard hitting at the net. She hit for three straight kills for a 16-9 lead and accounted for Princeton’s five final points of the game with rockets off the Storm hands, the final blow for a 25-17 winner.

Gartin finished the night with 19 kills.

“They couldn’t stop Olivia. You get 11 (Gartin) going, just keep her going. She was definitely a force tonight,” Puck said.

The Storm (9-18, 4-4) thwarted three game-points in the opening set, finally tying the score at 26 on a Princeton hitting error. After a net violation called against Princeton, junior setter Kate Salisbury served up an ace for the Storm game winner at 28-26.

“We played Game 1. We finished the game. That’s how we should finish the game,” BV coach Caitlyn DeMay said. “We just need to do that consistently. Good teams have to finish every game.

“Kudos to Princeton. Kudos to Puck. Plays a good offense. But we just need to finish and be mentality tough.”

Puck was also looking to finish off the first game.

“It would have been nice to close that first set out. It’s never easy to go three sets here if you can sneak that first one out,” he said. “Just wasn’t in the cards. We pushed, Bureau Valley pushed back. We pushed, Bureau Valley pushed back. They just got the win before we did.”

Princeton found some magic from Buccini (14) and Kelsea Klingenberg (11), who combined for 25 points.

“Those two are gritty. That’s what we need. Kids who are going to fight and scrap. They’ve made a world of difference the past couple weeks,” Puck said.

Miyah Fox (13 digs) and Natasha Faber-Fox (37 assists, 12 digs) also had 11 points each while Lily Keutzer had 10 kills.

Emma Stabler led the Storm with eight kills with Ella Thacker (seven points) and Mallory Endress adding six each. Salisbury put up 24 assists and Kate Stoller had 10 digs and six points.

Puck said it was a good bounce back win for the Tigresses coming off a Monday loss to IVC in a much faster-paced game.

“To be able to pick ourselves up from that speed of match to this speed, it’s not easy to do in one day without any practice,” he said. “We’ve been working on mental toughness and tonight we definitely showed we’re taking steps in the right direction.”

• Notes: BV won the sophomore match 25-13, 25-18 while Princeton won the freshmen tilt 25-22, 27-25.