NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team gave Yale all it could handle on Friday night at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Quakers won the second and third sets and had two chances to close things out, but the host Bulldogs won the fourth set 25-21 and then rolled in the fifth set, 15-8, for the win.
 
Penn fell to 6-14 overall and 3-8 in Ivy League play. Yale moved into sole possession of second place in the league at 8-3 and improved to 15-5 overall.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn fell to 2-2 this season in five-set matches; all of them have come in Ivy play (wins over Dartmouth and Harvard, losses to Princeton and Yale) and three of them have come in the last four matches.
 
*Junior captain Autumn Leak led Penn with 17 kills on Friday, her fourth time reaching double figures in that category in the last five matches and the 15th time she did it this season.
 
*Senior Daniela Fornaciari had 14 kills, one shy of her season/career high, and also led the Quakers with four block assists.
 
*Junior Madeline McGregor had another outstanding performance with her first collegiate double-double (12 kills, 15 digs) and a team-high three service aces.
 
*Senior captain Margaret Planek finished just one kill shy of her seventh double-double this season, with nine kills to go with 15 digs. She also had three blocks (1s/2a) and a service ace on Friday.
 
*Senior setter Kylie Kulinski had 47 assists—one shy of the season/career high she had last Saturday at Harvard—and 12 digs for her third double-double this season.
 
*Senior captain Carmina Raquel had a team-high 29 digs from her libero position.
 
How It Happened
Penn and Yale were tied seven times up to 9-9 in Friday night's first set, before the Bulldogs ripped off three straight points to start what would eventually become a 9-2 run. The teams essentially traded points the rest of the way, the hosts earning the 25-17 victory on a Kat Attar kill.
 
Penn turned the tables in the second set. The teams were tied five times up to 10-10 when kills by Paige Gillon and Leak sandwiched a set error by Yale for a three-point Quakers lead. The visitors never trailed again, using a 4-2 run to turn a one-point game into a 17-13 lead and holding the Bulldogs off down the stretch for the 25-22 win. McGregor had three kills and six digs to lead the way, while Fornaciari had four kills and hit .375.
 
It was the third set where it looked like Penn might completely flip the script on this night. The Quakers got kills from four different players and scored an astounding nine points in a row midway through the set, turning a 10-9 deficit into an 18-10 lead. Yale rallied back, scoring eight of the next 11 points to get within three at 21-18, but kills by MacGregor, Fornaciari (2) and Leak allowed the Bulldogs to run out of time as Penn won, 25-21. Leak had six kills in the set, hitting .625, while Fornaciari had four and McGregor had three. After hitting just .023 as a team in the first set, Penn hit .308 in the second and .321 in the third.
 
Penn kept its momentum well into the fourth set, using kills by Fornaciari and Gillon and a Fornaciari ace to build a 12-7 lead. However, with their backs to the wall the host Bulldogs fought back. Yale scored five points in a row to tie things up, then answered a Penn point with five more points. The overall run was 10-1 and put Yale in front 17-13. The teams literally traded the points the rest of the set as the hosts forced a fifth, 25-21. Planek was a force in the fourth with five kills, a .444 hitting percentage, a service ace and seven digs.
 
Penn and Yale matched each through the first four points of the fifth set, but at 2-2 the Bulldogs set off on a seven-point run that forced Penn head coach Meredith Schamun to burn both of her timeouts. The run eventually got to 10-1, giving Yale a 12-3 lead, and while the Quakers fought to the end there simply wasn't enough room to catch up as the Bulldogs won, 15-8.

Up Next
Penn closes out this four-game swing through New England on Saturday night at Brown. The Bears remain in first place in the Ivy standings after sweeping Princeton on Friday night in Providence. First serve is slated for 5 p.m.