Women's Volleyball, Then And Now

Okay, TigerBlog just found out something that's fairly amazing.

First, though, he'd like to start with a simple "oops." He'll get back to the amazing part later.

TigerBlog made a big mistake in yesterday's review of where the Ivy League football race stands as it heads into its final weekend. He said that there was definitely going to be a celebration on Powers Field Saturday at the end of the Princeton-Penn game, something that is incorrect.

Penn can only gain a share of the title if Harvard beats Yale in a game that starts one hour ahead of the one at Princeton. Should Yale beat Harvard, then Penn would be eliminated. 

TB would like to thank everyone who pointed that out to him. He also took great comfort in knowing that, because he got such immediate response for an incorrect fact, that he probably doesn't make that many mistakes.

So there's that.

Should Princeton and Yale both win in football this weekend, they will share the Ivy League championship. The Tigers and Bulldogs are already co-champs in one fall sport, women's volleyball. Both teams went 12-0 against the rest of the league and 1-1 against each other, each winning on its home court.

In any previous year of Ivy League women's volleyball, the two would be playing a third match against each other to determine the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. This year, things are much different.

As such, this weekend will see Princeton play in the first Ivy League women's volleyball tournament. Well, sort of the first tournament. You can call it the first modern tournament.

And that's where the amazing part of the story picks up.

The first Ivy women's volleyball tournament was held in the spring of 1977, and Princeton was the champion. This was sort of an unofficial tournament, by the way, and it does not count as one the Tigers' least-best 19 titles.

The first official Ivy tournament took place a few months later, in October of 1977. There were seven schools who participated (Dartmouth did not), and Penn, the host team, was the winner. Princeton came in fourth.

As TB said, there were seven schools who competed, and they each played each other once, all on one day. How's that for grueling? 

TB knew that there had been an Ivy tournament back then. In fact, it was how the league championship was earned until a more traditional round-robin began in 1987. In 2001, the league went to a double round-robin. Now it's double round-robin and the tournament for the top four teams. 

And the amazing part? When TB went back to read in the Daily Princetonian archives about the first Ivy volleyball tournament, and guess who was the one who wrote this intro:

The past two weeks have been a time for ups and downs for the women's volleyball team. Last Monday the spikers (16-13) discovered that they had been granted a berth in the EAIAW regionals, through which an Eastern champion is chosen. That news, however, came a week after the team failed to retain its Ivy League title at the championship meet in Philadelphia. Host Penn won the tourney while Princeton placed fourth behind Yale and Cornell. Tiger coach Susana Occhi termed the championship a "marathon tournament," in which each team played all six other squads (Dartmouth was not represented) in the course of one day.

Here's your hint: the writer did not have a career in sportswriting.

Who is it? Elena Kagan. Yes, the one who is currently a Supreme Court Justice.

So yes, there is precedent for an Ivy tournament. Precedent. Sometimes TB cracks himself up. 

As for this weekend's tournament, it is being held at Yale because the Bulldogs had a three-set win for its win against Princeton and the Tigers had a four-set win for their win over Yale. The other two teams are Brown, Princeton's opponent in the first round, and Dartmouth. 

The Tigers play at 4 Friday. The final is at 6 Saturday.

As with all Ivy sports, the winner of the tournament will earn the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. No matter what happens this weekend in New Haven, Princeton and Yale will be the 2022 Ivy League champions (Yale, with 12  championships, is second all-time to Princeton).