HELPING HANDS: Princeton University women’s volleyball player Valerie Nutakor celebrates a point during a recent match. Senior star outside hitter Nutakor recorded 18 kills and 13 digs to help top-seeded Princeton rally to defeat third-seeded Yale 3-2 (21-25, 25-16, 18-25, 25-21, 15-10) in the Ivy Tournament championship match on November 22. The Tigers, now 18-6, start play in the NCAA tournament this week where they will face fourth-seeded Southern California on December 4 in a first round contest at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Shelley Szwast, provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
By Justin Feil
Valerie Nutakor’s career with the Princeton University women’s volleyball team started on a high and will end on an even bigger high.
The senior outside hitter won a starting spot as a freshman, a significant achievement for any first year player. Three years later, after a season coming off the bench, Nutakor returned to the starting lineup as a senior and put together an All-Ivy League season to help the Tigers reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 by rallying to edge Yale, 3-2, in the Ivy League Tournament championship match on November 22.
“It’s kind of weird because it might be the last game of my volleyball career, but at the same time, we have the chance to win the tournament championship and go to NCAAs,” said Nutakor, a 5’11 native of Forsyth, Ill. “This is the longest season I’ve had. So I’m just proud of everything we’ve accomplished. There was a sense of pride and a sense of happiness and joy knowing that I get two more weeks with this team and two more weeks of my volleyball career at least.”
Princeton improved to 18-6 overall with the victory over Yale as it posted its seventh straight win. After five straight wins helped them secure the Ivy League regular-season title and top seed to host the Ivy tournament, the Tigers faced a pair of teams that they split with in the regular season.
Princeton swept fourth-seeded Brown, 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-21), in the Ivy semifinals, then rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win the final two sets against third-seeded Yale to earn the Ivy’s automatic bid to the NCAAs. Lucia Scalamandre, another PU senior, had 20 kills and five blocks in the 21-25, 25-16, 18-25, 25-21, 15-10 win. Nutakor posted 18 kills and 13 digs while Erin McNair finished with 16 kills and 12 digs, Sydney Draper delivered 52 assists and 11 digs, and Sydney Bold had 14 digs and four service aces.
“It struck me that no one on this team has been part of a trip to the NCAA tournament,” said Princeton head coach Sabrina King. “And it’s just a really special experience that I think everyone on the team should have, so I’m excited for them. And I think just winning that Ivy League tournament was a really important step for us as a program because it’s been a little bit of a hurdle for us that we haven’t been able to get over.”
Princeton will be an underdog in the NCAA tournament when they face fourth-seeded Southern California on December 4 in a first round contest at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif. The Trojans are 24-6 overall. The winner plays the victor of the matchup between fifth-seeded BYU and Cal Poly on December 5. It may seem like a daunting task, but the Tigers took then-No. 13 Penn State to five sets in a 3-2 loss in their final weekend before Ivy regular-season play began. That was back in September, but it gives them a reminder of how to approach the game.
“There’s a sense, and it’s weird because you wouldn’t think this, but there’s a sense of fearlessness that comes with playing games like that,” said Nutakor. “Like when we played Penn State this year, reigning national champions, it’s like you know you’re going to have a big block in your face, so it’s time to take some risks because you can’t tip, you can’t roll because they’ll pick it up. They have such good ball control. You can’t just throw an easy serve in there. So I think it really makes us play a lot more aggressive and a lot more fearless because there’s no time to have fear. There’s no time to lack confidence. You have to just go for it.”
The Tigers have shown a resilience all season, even before the year began. Following last year’s Ivy regular-season championship season, sophomore Kamryn Chaney transferred to Vanderbilt after earning Ivy League Player of the Year honors. Princeton’s players handled it well and put a good spin on how to optimize their new-look team.
“We realized that even though we did lose a pretty big weapon, because we had that weapon, our offense wasn’t as balanced in our team dynamics,” said Nutakor. “When you don’t have that balance, the team dynamics also kind of get affected in a way. I think a lot of the people on the court, we are such close friends off the court, which makes the relationships better, but also having more different roles and the offense being spread out more, it allows us all to thrive.”
Princeton relied on more depth than ever. If one of the Tigers was having an off game, Princeton just turned to other players. King inserted players off the bench for the fourth and fifth sets of the Ivy tournament final which helped the Tiger offense be a little less predictable. Princeton used that formula to help win the regular season and Ivy tournament.
“Having three losses and still being able to win outright, which is the best we’ve done in my time here, it’s honestly so surreal,” said Nutakor. “And I think we’re all just really proud of all the work we’ve put in and the way we just not only didn’t give up throughout the season, but especially in that game, we didn’t give up. I mean, it was back and forth. They won the first set, we won the second set. And usually if a team wins the third set after that, you think, okay, this is going to be a fourth setter, but we really fought back in that fourth set. And so I think there’s just this sense of pride and joy knowing that we got to compete in the NCAA tournament.”
Yale won the first set, 25-21, but Princeton responded with a 25-16 second-set win. Yale won the third set, 25-21, to pull within one set of the Ivy title, but the Tigers came back to win 25-21 and force the decisive fifth set, which they won 15-10. Princeton had to lean on each other to pull out the championship.
“The games that we won, we served well,” said King. “Their service team broke down a little bit. When they’re in system, they’re hard to compete with — and same with us — and so our service was good and we were able to run our middles. Lucia had a great game, super high hitting percentage as she’s had for most of the year. And being able to be in system really helped us. And so those sets that we won, we felt that was the main difference. It was really our serve and pass game, which has been sort of the cornerstone of our success for the whole season.”
Nutakor put together her best season in her final year at Princeton as she recorded 284 kills and 218 digs. She was named first-team All-Ivy League along with Draper, quite a feather in her cap after returning to the lineup and taking on a higher pressure role. The year before she had played rotated in on the front line. She was one who helped fill the void of losing Chaney while playing all six rotations in games this year.
“Each year has been a little different from her, for her, and I’m just really proud of her because it was sort of like an opportunity arose and she was able to shine and she’s probably her hardest critic,” said King. “It’s been four years of us telling her that she’s really, really good. I think she finally believes, she wouldn’t ever admit that, but I think she finally does believe that she’s actually a really, really fantastic player.”
Nutakor was quick to credit teammates, especially Draper’s setting, for helping her succeed. She’s enjoyed her time as a student-athlete at Princeton as she prepares to go medical school.
“It’s played such an important role in my Princeton experience,” said Nutakor. “Obviously, I know my identity goes beyond being an athlete and everything, but there are just so many life lessons that I’ve learned and just so many relationships that I’ve formed that I hope will last a lifetime. Sometimes, when your work is just overloaded, you’re feeling overwhelmed by work, it’s really nice to go to practice and have that escape. It’s nice to have those away trips where you’re on the bus with all of your friends. It’s just a nice thing to have. And then also it’s taught me discipline. It’s taught me time management and things like that. There’s plenty of lessons that I’ll take on with me in my life from being a student-athlete at Princeton for sure.”
Winning the Ivy tournament gave her some more time in the program and the chance to share another special experience with teammates before she turns her attention to graduating. Nutakor is part of a group that came in with a lot of potential, showed growth and resilience and pushed the Tigers to the biggest tournament in college.
“I definitely think we were playing our best volleyball towards the end of the season,” said King. “And so that was really helpful because I feel like you can’t always choose when your team’s going to peak. But I think just mentally we felt like we were we were feeling good and playing good volleyball at the right time. I also think that we were mentally prepared to continue playing. Sometimes at the end of the season, we feel broken down, mostly physically, but also mentally, and so I felt like we were definitely capable of winning and having a wherewithal to want to win.”