‘This is the year’: Princeton beats Newman for regional title

Princeton senior Keely Lawson told coach Andy Puck the Tigresses were going to win the regional this season.

That promise rang true Thursday when the Tigresses defeated Three Rivers East rival Newman 25-18, 25-16 to capture the Class 2A Princeton Regional championship on their home court.

“I told coach in the summer, ‘This is it. This is the year,’” Lawson said. “And it just means so much because we’ve worked our butts off for this moment.”

The win had special meaning for Princeton senior setter Makayla Hecht.

“It means a lot winning it since the last one was in 2021 and my sister (McKenzie) was on it,” she said. “We’ve worked all season for this and we really showed up tonight. Very proud of everyone.”

The Tigresses (21-13-1) advance to the Riverdale Sectional to face Peoria Notre Dame (24-12) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The Irish beat Chillicothe IVC 25-22, 25-18 for the championship at the Mercer County Regional.

“This one means a lot. This has been a goal for all the seniors and was a goal at the beginning of the season,” Puck said. “And then we found out we were hosting and that just enticed it a little bit. Home cooking. It’s always fun when you achieve your goals.”

Princeton's Keely Lawson makes a block against Sterling Newman in Thursday's regional finals at Prouty Gym. (Mike Vaughn)

Princeton used a 9-2 run in the first set to take a 17-11 lead on an ace by senior libero Camryn Driscoll, who had nine points and three aces in the match.

Newman drew within 17-15 when Kennedi Shippert capped a 4-0 run with an ace.

Lawson and Keighley Davis hit Princeton to a 21-17 lead with a pair of kills and Davis finished off the opening set 25-18 with a pair of aces.

The Tigresses came out strong in the second set, taking leads of 12-6, 18-9 and then 21-11 after a kill and block by Lawson and a let serve by Ava Kyle that Newman could not return.

Tasting victory ahead, the Princeton student body started to celebrate a little too soon.

The Comets said not so fast as Isabella Lanning hit for two of her 10 kills on the night to cap a 5-1 run and pull Newman within 22-16.

Davis got the side out with a deep push and – like she did the first set – put the celebration in motion with an ace to finish off the 25-16 clincher.

“The rivalry is still there, but we knew we wanted to get them back. I think we were all prepared for this moment and knew what we had to do shut them out,” Lawson said, noting Newman’s win over the Tigresses in their last meeting.

Newman's Giselle Martin takes a swing against Princeton's Keighley Davis (left) and Kelly Lawson (5). The Tigresses won 25-18, 25-16. (Mike vaughn)

Newman coach Debbi Kelly said her team came out uncharacteristically timid after playing so fierce in Tuesday’s semifinal upset over top-seeded Sherrard.

“I wasn’t expecting that. Partly was (because) how strong Princeton came out and had hands on balls right at the net and I think threw our girls off,” said Kelly, who hugged Puck at center court after the celebration had subsided. “They didn’t go as strong at the net against them. And we had some systems failures that really have not happened much of the second half of the season.

“They’ll learn from it. That’s what we’ve got to take from it. The feeling how this feels and take that forward into next year.

Puck said the Tigresses really focused on serving and serve receive in practice and it paid off.

“That’s postseason volleyball and we’ve really, really worked on that in practice and executed them tonight,” he said. “The other thing was slowing down their pin hitters, their outside hitters and their middle. We worked on some blocking assignments yesterday. We blocked a lot more cross than we ever have. Forced them to hit down the line and lot of times they hit out of bounds or into the net.

“We were able to stay disciplined in our blocking assignments. That acutually probably won the match for us because Neman is electric. They jump well. They hit well. They have one of their better setters in the area and when they get rolling they score points in bunches. And we were able to neutralize that just enough where we were able to stay comfortable and score points.”

For Princeton, Lawson had nine kills and two blocks, Davis six kills, eight points and three aces, junior Danika Burden three blocks and Hecht 13 assists.

When asked how far the Tigresses could go, Hecht simply said, “Far.”

“Hopefully, past sectionals,” added Lawson. “I think we’ve got it. We’re playing as we have all year.

Puck knows anything can happen in the postseason.

“We had just as good of team last year, too. We just ran into a really good El Paso-Gridley team that ended up getting fourth at state,” he said. “We play an extremely tough schedule. Sometimes our record doesn’t show how good we are. But you get to times like this and it definitely shows when you play a tough schedule.”

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Princeton coach Andy Puck heads a happy huddle after the Tigresses captured the regional championship Thursday night, defeating Sterling Newman. (Mike Vaughn)