PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team (6-13, 3-7 Ivy League) heads back to New England this weekend. It's a daunting trip to Connecticut and Rhode Island as the Quakers face second-place Yale on Friday night and Ivy League leader Brown on Saturday.
 
MATCH 20 – Penn at Yale
Friday, Nov. 5 | 7 p.m.
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
MATCH 21 – Penn at Brown
Saturday, Nov. 6 | 5 p.m.
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Ivy League on ESPN
A reminder that the Ivy League is paired with ESPN and you will be able to find all Penn home games, as well as road Ivy matches and select non-conference road games, on ESPN+ this fall with the same high broadcast quality you've come to expect. ESPN+ is a subscription-based service that offers monthly and yearly packages. Click here to subscribe to ESPN+! (https://plus.espn.com/)
 
YALE: The First Meeting
The Bulldogs beat the Quakers in four, winning the first, second and fourth sets by 25-19 scores. Penn staved off elimination in the third set, winning it 25-23. Playing against her younger sister, junior captain Autumn Leak led Penn with 15 kills and had five digs while senior captain Margaret Planek had 10 kills and eight digs. Sophomore Emerson Flornes had seven kills and led the Quakers with five blocks (1s/4a).
 
About Yale
The Bulldogs (14-5, 7-3 Ivy) enter the weekend on a four-match win streak after sweeping Cornell and Columbia on the road last weekend. Fatima Samb is third among Ivy players in hitting percentage (.353) and Carly Diehl is third in assists per set (9.03). Junior Sam Bray was a first-team All-Ivy pick in 2019, while senior Kathryn Attar received honorable mention All-Ivy recognition.
 
BROWN: The First Meeting
The Bears rolled through the first two sets, winning 25-8 and 25-13. The Quakers came back to win the third, 25-23, but Brown made short work of its hosts with a 25-13 decision in the fourth. Margaret Planek had a double-double (10 kills/13 digs) while Daniela Fornaciari had eight kills and five blocks (2s/3a).
 
About Brown
The Bears (16-4, 9-1 Ivy)—who play Princeton Friday night—enter the weekend two matches up in the standings after sweeping the Lions and Big Red last weekend in New York. Overall, Brown has won 12 of its last 13 matches. Kate Sheire, who swept the Ivy League's weekly honors on Monday, is third among Ivy players in kills per set (3.72), Beau Vanderlaan is second in hitting percentage (.395), and Victoria Wo leads the league in digs per set (5.36). Junior Sophia Miller was a unanimous choice as Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2019 and earned first-team All-Ivy that season, while classmate Kaitlyn Wong was honorable mention All-Ivy.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*The Quakers split their trip to Northern New England last weekend, falling in three to Dartmouth on Friday but recovering to win an epic five-setter on Saturday at Harvard
 
*Leak, a junior captain, had a monstrous night against the Crimson, recording 21 kills and hitting .421 to match the best hitting night of her season. It was her fifth time with 20 or more kills in 2021, but the first since she had 24 at Temple on September 18.
 
*Leak's career high for kills in a match was 15 entering the season. She has surpassed that number seven times in 2021.
 
*Leak—who leads Penn with 267 kills and is tied for third with 99 digs—has already had a decorated season: she was MVP of Penn's Sheraton University City Invitational and earned Ivy League Player of the Week following the event, then followed that up with all-tournament honors at the DePaul Invitational.
 
*Leak remains third among Ivy League players in overall kills per set (3.76), behind only Columbia's Noelle Foster (3.99) and Princeton's Elena Montgomery (3.85).
 
*Planek, a senior captain, had her sixth double-double of the season in Saturday's match at Harvard, with 13 kills and 14 digs, and hit .306 on the night
 
*Planek—who has a double-digit kill total in seven of the last eight matches and 12 overall this season—is second on the team with 178 kills and 128 digs and third with 34 blocks (2s/32a).
 
*Junior Madeline McGregor had a career-high 20 kills in Friday's match at Dartmouth, hitting .357. She is currently third on the team with 143 kills for the season.
 
*Fornaciari leads Penn and is seventh among Ivy League players in blocks per set (1.02).
 
*Fornaciari had 17 kills last weekend, including her third double-digit match with 12 at Harvard, and has 131 on the season.
 
*Senior Kylie Kulinski was Penn's setter last Friday and was particularly effective in the Harvard win with a career-high 48 assists. She enters the weekend fifth among Ivy players in assists per set in Ivy play (6.85).
 
*Senior captain Carmina Raquel has made a triumphant return to the libero position the last five matches, after missing most of the early season to injury. She had 30 digs last weekend, giving her 99 since returning to the starting lineup.
 
*Penn's trip to Chicago on September 10-11 represented a homecoming for four members of Penn's team who hail from the Chicagoland area: senior Kylie Kulinski (New Lenox/Lincoln-Way Central) and Margaret Planek (Oak Park/Fenwick) and juniors Elizabeth Ford (Evanston/Loyola Academy) and Madeline McGregor (Chicago/New Trier HS).
 
*Penn took team honors at the Sheraton University City Invitational at The Palestra, going 3-0 and beating Coppin State in what was essentially a championship match as both teams entered 2-0 on the weekend. Against the Eagles, Penn lost the first set, won the second, and then pulled out 27-25 decisions in the third and fourth sets to earn a dramatic victory.
 
*Penn announced its captains for the 2021 season ahead of the opener; Leak, Planek and Raquel will lead the Quakers this fall.
 
*Three of the five players who registered at least 100 kills in the 2019 season are back for 2021: Leak (200), Planek (187), and Fornaciari (135).
 
*Fornaciari also led Penn with eight block solos and 61 block assists in 2019, while Planek had 44 block assists and Leak had 29 block assists.
 
*Raquel was Penn's libero in 2019 and led the Quakers with 356 digs, more than twice as many as any of her teammates. Planek (146) and Douglas (144) were third and fourth, respectively, in that category.
 
*Raquel also led the Red and Blue with 21 service aces in 2019, followed closely by Planek (20) and Douglas (18). Fornaciari had 12 aces that season.