PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania women's volleyball team (5-5, 0-1 Ivy) continues Ivy League play this Friday and Saturday on the road as they travel to Yale (7-3, 1-0 Ivy) and Brown (5-7, 0-1 Ivy). The Quakers will begin play on Friday at 7 p.m. in New Haven to take on the Bulldogs, winners of three straight before heading to Rhode Island to play the Bears at 5 p.m. on Saturday who have lost six of their last seven.
The Quakers will look to bounce back after falling in their Ivy League opener last week to Princeton. The team has responded well after though losses all season. After losing the first game of the year to Campbell, the Red and Blue went on to win three straight against Central Michigan, George Mason, and Siena. They then responded once again after a string of losses to win back-to-back games to cap off their best preseason since 2013.
Two straight wins this weekend would set Penn up well in the Ivy League before they play seven of their next nine matches at The Palestra. The Quakers face off against two teams that went up against each other last week as Yale defeated Brown, 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-23).
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About Penn
*The Quakers have been one of the Ivy League's best and most efficient attacking teams this season. With 479 kills, the Red and Blue rank fourth in the Ivy, but their .230 hitting percentage ranks second. Leading the charge are
Parker Jones and
Kendall Covington. Jones ranks fifth in the Ivy in kills and second in points, while Covington is second in the conference with a hit percentage of .385.
* The Red and Blue rank third in the Ivy League in digs and are lead by
Caroline Furrer who ranks fifth with 134 on the season.
* Head coach
Katie Schumacher-Cawley will be going for her first Ivy League win this weekend.
Scouting Yale
*Yale comes into Friday night having won their Ivy Opener against Brown, 3-0. The Bulldogs won their opening three matches at the Yale Invitational before losing three of their next four. They now sit at 7-3 and are winners of three straight.
* The Yale women's volleyball team returns three all-Ivy selections and four of its top-five kill producers from a year ago.
*Junior, Kelley Wirth leads the Bulldogs in kills and ranks third in the Ivy League in both kills and points.
* The Bulldogs return team captain Kelsey Crawford who entered the season ninth all-time in Yale program history with 1,887 assists.
* The Quakers lead the all-time series 34-27, but their last win came in 2010, a season in which Penn and Yale tied for the regular season Ivy League title. Penn went into Yale for a third meeting for a playoff and won a tight five set match to secure the title.
Scouting Brown
* Brown plays Princeton Friday night before playing the Quakers on Saturday
* The Bears are losers of six of their last seven after winning four of their first five as they sit at 5-7 going into the weekend's games.
* Brown's Jacqueline Jacobs ranks second in the Ivy League in blocks as she averages 1.3 per set.
* Melissa Cairo earned All-Ivy honors last fall and ranked second in the Ivy League with 4.89 digs per set. Cairo returns to the Bears this season and once again ranks among the top in digs with 3.73 per set.
* The Quakers lead the all-time series 48-20 and are 6-4 in the last ten meetings. Penn's last win in Brown came in 2013.
