BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Playing in front of an enthusiastic crowd on Lehigh's campus, the University of Pennsylvania volleyball team gave the Mountain Hawks everything they could handle on Tuesday night but came up short when it mattered in taking a 3-1 (25-21, 22-25, 27-25, 25-20) loss.
 
Penn had set point in the third, at 25-24, but the hosts rattled off three straight points for the win. In the fourth, the teams were tied 17-17 but Penn only scored three points after that (all of them coming on Lehigh service errors).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Junior captain Autumn Leak had a monster night, tying a career high with 21 kills and hitting .421 for the match. She has now hit the 20-kill mark in three of Penn's seven matches so far in 2021.
 
*Junior Madeline McGregor was second among Penn players with eight kills while also accumulating seven digs, a service ace and an assist.
 
*Senior captain Margaret Planek had five kills, while a trio of players—senior Daniela Fornaciari, sophomore Emerson Flornes and freshman Sydney Ormiston—had four each.
 
*Planek also led the Quakers with 14 digs, while freshman Kat Alexander had 13 and junior libero Caroline Douglas had 10.
 
*Ormiston also had 30 assists in the match, while Flornes and Douglas both had two service aces.
 
How It Happened
Lehigh used a four-point run early in Tuesday night's first set to turn a 3-3 tie into a 7-3 lead. Penn could never get all the way back to tie, the teams essentially trading the points the rest of the way as the Mountain Hawks kept the Quakers at bay. Lehigh's biggest lead in the set was five, and Penn never got closer than two.
 
The second set was the Autumn Leak Show, as the junior had six kills on seven attacks in a set that saw five lead changes and 11 ties. That said, it was her teammates who stepped up in crunch time. Madeline McGregor broke a 21-21 tie with a kill, and then after the teams traded points to 23-22 kills by Daniela Fornaciari and Margaret Planek closed thing out and sent the teams to the break level at 1-1.
 
If the second set was dramatic, the third set was bonkers. The teams tied 16 times and had 12 lead changes, with Leak (7 kills in the set, .750 hitting percentage) hammering away on one side and Lehigh's three-headed attack of Hannah Wright, Megan Schulte and Sabrina Lancaster on the other (they had a combined 15 kills and hit .382). It looked like Penn might pull it out, the Quakers winning four of five points to turn an 18-18 tie into a 22-19 lead. Lehigh came back level at 22-22, and then Planek's kill was answered by kills from Wright and Lancaster to put the Mountain Hawks at game point.
 
Penn took timeout, and it served to ice Lehigh's server whose error tied the set at 24-24. Then a Flornes kill gave the Quakers set point at 25-24. However, Wright hammered home to tie it at 25-25, and then a pair of Penn attack errors gave the set to the Hawks.
 
The fourth set saw six more ties, the last coming at 17-17. At that point, kills by Lancaster and Wright were sandwiched around a Penn attack error and Lehigh had the room it needed. Penn got within two points twice, at 20-18 and 21-19, but Emily Stewart had kills on consecutive points to open the Hawks' lead back to four and the hosts closed it out from there.
 
Up Next
Penn will be on Temple's campus for a pair of matches on Saturday as part of the Owls' City Classic. The Quakers will face the host Owls at 11 a.m. and then play Villanova at 3 p.m.