PRINCETON, N.J. – Nyherowo Omene has been putting together quite the spectacular final season to his collegiate volleyball career. Even by his standards, his performance in the EIVA Championship Tournament semifinals was stunning.
Princeton’s senior pin hitter posted a career-high 28 kills while hitting .457 on his 46 swings, adding three aces, an assist, six digs and a pair of blocks during the Tigers’ 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 26-24 win against George Mason in the semifinals April 24 in Dillon Gym.
Princeton (15-10, 10-2) will head to the championship match at 5 p.m. April 26 to face either Penn State or NJIT, who meet in the second semifinal.
Prolific offensive performances is nothing new for Omene, who now has four matches this season of 20 or more kills and nine for his career. His previous career-best was 27, and he has had double digits in kills in 20 of his 23 matches this season.
The Tigers, who hit .357 as a team, got plenty of production from its other pin hitters Owen Mellon and Mason Rice, with 12 and 13 kills, respectively, and had to fight off a Patriot team that refused to surrender.
Match notes
Princeton opened its season losing its first three matches and in mid-March had a 6-9 record. Since then the Tigers are 9-1.
Princeton is heading to its seventh EIVA title match, seeking its third crown, during coach Sam Shweisky’s 16-season tenure.
Princeton took the first set using a 5-1 run midway through the frame and eventually held a 22-16 lead. The Patriots rallied to within 23-20 before a Mason Rice kill and Henry Wedbush ace locked it up.
The Tigers were up 18-16 in the second, but George Mason responded with a 6-1 burst, holding the lead to the final point – an Omene service error.
A 4-0 Princeton run, fueled by two Wedbush aces and two Omene kills, had the lead at 20-14. GMU, however, answered with a 6-1 run to pull within 21-20. The Patriots could never pull even, however, as the Tigers scored four of the final six points on two more Omene kills, a Tiger block and a Patriot error.
The story of the fourth set was the Tigers building a lead and the Patriots rallying. Princeton was up 11-6 thanks to three kills from Omene and Mellon and two from Rice, but a little later three French kills during a 4-0 run knotted the frame at 15. Again Princeton took a 22-19 advantage, and again GMU came back with two more French kills in a 4-1 run and a 23-23 tie, setting the stage for two more Omene kills to lock up the victory.
Among those who did not give up was French. Midway through the third set his stat line showed eight kills, eight errors and no aces. Over the final set-and-a-half he had 11 kills, one error and an ace.
Stat leaders
Rice (PRIN) 13 kills, one assist, two digs, four blocks.
Mellon (PRIN) 12 kills on .391 hitting, one assist, five digs and five blocks.
Henry Wedbush (PRIN) 52 assists, one kill, three aces, six sigs and four blocks.
French (GMU) 19 kills, one ace, one assist, three digs and two blocks.
Alexander Lillie (GMU) hit 8-1-14 .500, one dig and four blocks.
Jackson Herbert (GMU) nine kills, one assist, four digs and two blocks.
Evan Snodgrass (GMU) five kills and six blocks.
Troy McDonald (GMU) 41 assists, three kills on four swings, one ace, nine digs and two blocks.
Post-match comments
Full Princeton session
Coach Sam Shweisky
“This guy (Omene) doesn’t like to talk about stats, doesn’t like to talk too much about awards and stuff, but 28 kills, hitting .457 is pretty outstanding.”
Pin hitter Nyherowo Omene
“The time for playoffs, it’s not being perfect, it’s not about being super pretty and flashy. It’s about survive and advance and kind of just repeating that.”
Full George Mason session
Coach Jay Hosack
“We just didn’t have an answer for him (Omene). When you have a big-time player and you’ve got an All-American stud player who’s probably going to go on to bigger and better things making money overseas, that’s how they’re supposed to act.”
Setter Troy McDonald
“That was a thing for us (rallying from point deficits). We like to go down and we would come back. We knew we were down tonight and I don’t think (got) tentative. We fought back and we tried our best.”