PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team closed out its first full Ivy League weekend in dramatic fashion on Saturday, defeating Dartmouth 3-2 (17-25, 25-22, 25-17, 16-25, 15-13) in front of a boisterous Palestra crowd.
Penn snapped an eight-match losing streak with the victory and is now 4-8 overall, 1-2 in the Ivy League. Dartmouth fell to 8-4 and is now 0-3 in Ivy play.
Quaker Notemeal
*Senior
Daniela Fornaciari was the story for the second straight night. On offense, she was once again opportunistic with 12 kills and a .417 hitting percentage for the night. On defense, she had a hand in 11 blocks—a number surpassed only seven times in program history—with four solo and seven assisted.
*Junior captain
Autumn Leak led the Quakers with 14 kills and also had 13 digs for the double-double. She also had a block assist.
*Senior captain
Margaret Planek just missed out on a double-double with 11 kills (.323 hitting percentage) and nine digs as well as two block assists.
*Sophomore
Emerson Flornes had another solid night at the net, with seven kills and a .583 hitting percentage. She also had a block solo and a block assist.
*Freshman
Ella Green had six kills, 10 digs and two block assists in her first collegiate start.
*Senior
Kylie Kulinski had 24 assists on Saturday night while freshman
Jo Armstrong had 14.
*Junior
Caroline Douglas had 16 digs to lead the Quakers.
How It Happened
After the Ancient Eight foes exchanged the first two points of the opening set, Dartmouth reeled off seven straight points to build an 8-1 lead. During the surge, the Big Green took advantage of a Penn service error and an attack error. Following a Quaker timeout, the hosts pulled to within three at 12-9. During a 4-0 run, the Red and Blue got a pair of kills from Flornes and an ace from Kulinski. The Big Green would answer with a spurt of their own stretching the lead to as many as seven at 21-14. Dartmouth scored three of the final four points in the first frame to take a 1-0 lead.
The second set went back-and-forth early on before Dartmouth scored three straight points capped by a block to hold a 10-7 edge. Penn battled back to tie the set at 15 following a solo block from Fornaciari. Trailing 17-16, the Quakers scored three straight points capped by another ace from Kulinski.
The Big Green responded by scoring four of the next five points to take a 21-20 lead. The set had plenty of runs on both sides and the Quakers reeled off five of the final six points to even things at one set each.
Penn rode the momentum from the second set and took control early in the third en route a 25-17 win and a 2-1 lead in sets. The Quakers used a 4-0 run in the middle of the stanza to take a 17-11 advantage. Dartmouth pulled to within five at 19-14, but Penn held its ground and used the crowd's energy to head into the fourth set with a lead.
Dartmouth broke open a 2-2 tie in the fourth set with six unanswered points to build a lead they would not relinquish in the stanza. The Big Green had 18 kills in the frame in forcing a decisive fifth set.
The Big Green started the fifth set out strong, using an early 4-0 run to build a 6-1 lead and forcing a Penn timeout. Back-to-back kills from Leak pulled Penn to within three. After a Big Green kill, the Quakers scored three straight capped by a block from Flornes to make it 7-6 in favor of Dartmouth. Penn eventually tied the set at nine courtesy of a block by Planek and Fornaciari. After back-to-back points from Dartmouth, Penn answered with a 4-0 run to take a 13-11 lead. Clinging to a 14-13 lead with Dartmouth serving, Leak put the exclamation point on the victory with a kill.
Up Next
Penn is on the road for next weekend's Ivy matches, traveling to Columbia on Friday night (7 p.m. start) and facing Cornell on Saturday (5 p.m.).
#FightOnPenn
