PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team closed out a four-match road trip to New England in the unfortunate position of facing a Brown team that entered Saturday night knowing that a win would give the Bears their first Ivy League title since 2001.
 
Bruno did not mess around, pinning a 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-15) defeat on the Quakers at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
 
Brown improved to 11-1 in Ivy League play and clinched just the fifth Ivy title in program history. With Princeton beating Yale in New Haven tonight, the Bears have also secured the Ivy League's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship. Penn—which was coming off a thrilling five-setter at Yale on Friday night—fell to 6-15 overall, 3-9 in Ivy play.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Junior captain Autumn Leak led Penn with nine kills.
 
*Junior Madeline McGregor had eight kills, led the Quakers with a .250 hitting percentage, and added five digs and a block assist.
 
*Senior captain Margaret Planek had six kills and seven digs on Saturday.
 
*Daniela Fornaciari (5 kills) and Paige Gillon (3) led Penn's defensive effort, both of them coming up with a block solo and a block assist.
 
*Senior Kylie Kulinski had 21 assists before giving way to freshman Sydney Ormiston (8) in the third set.
 
*Senior captain Carmina Raquel led Penn with 14 digs from her libero position.
 
How It Happened
Saturday's first set was close most of the way. The teams were only tied twice, at 9-9 and 11-11, before Brown ran off three straight points. The Bears would never trail again, although Penn got as close as 17-16 on a Kulinski service ace. However, Bruno scored four in a row after that to make it 21-16, and then after Penn got kills from Leak and Planek the Bears scored four of the next five to close it out.
 
Penn held several two-point leads early on in the second set, but once Bruno got going the Quakers were helpless to stop things. The Bears ran off eight points in a row, turning an 11-10 deficit into an 18-11 lead and forcing head coach Meredith Schamun to burn both of her timeouts. Penn briefly came alive out of the second break, scoring three points in a row to get within 18-14, but Brown then ran off seven of the last eight points to take a 25-15 decision. In all, it was a 15-4 run by the Bears.
 
The third set was similar in makeup. Brown broke a 6-6 tie with three straight points, but Penn hung around for awhile after that. It was still 11-9 when the Bears made their move, scoring three straight points and then five more in a row after a Leak kill. That made the score 19-10 and from there it was simply a matter of time, as the Quakers never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
 
Up Next
Penn will be home next weekend to close out the regular season, hosting Cornell on Friday night at 7 p.m. and Columbia on Saturday at 5 p.m. Prior to Saturday's match with the Lions, the Quakers will honor their graduating seniors.