NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team gave a gallant effort on Saturday night against the Ivy League's first-place team, but Yale was able to put away the Quakers when it counted in taking a closer-than-it-looks, 3-0 victory.
 
Set scores were 28-26, 25-19, 25-15.
 
Penn fell to 2-15 with the loss and hit the midpoint of the Ivy campaign at 1-6. Yale remains unbeaten in Ivy play at 7-0 and is now 15-1 overall after a big weekend sweeping Princeton and then Penn.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Ella Green led Penn with six kills, the second straight night leading the Quakers in that category, and tied for team-high honors with three block assists.
 
*Autumn Leak, Madeline McGregor and Claire Deller all had five kills on the night, the freshman Deller showing off her opportunism with a .400 hitting night.
 
*Deller and Leak also had two block assists, while McGregor had a block solo.
 
*Emerson Flornes had four kills and led the Quakers with a block solo and three block assists.
 
*Freshman Abigail Reid once again led all players with 15 digs.
 
*Another freshman, Anna Shohfi, had 25 assists and nine digs from her setter position.
 
*Junior Julia Bradshaw entered the night with two service aces this season but doubled that up with two more on Saturday.
 
How It Happened
Penn won Saturday's first point, but Yale responded with the next six. Soon it was 8-2 and it felt like the Ivy leaders might run away. Instead, the Quakers took advantage of several Bulldogs errors to climb back into it, drawing level at 10-10 and taking a lead at 12-11. Penn's biggest lead came at 18-15 and again at 19-16, but Yale scored four in a row to go in front and force a Quakers timeout. A Shohfi kill out of the break tied it at 21-21, and then a Green kill put Penn in front, 22-21. A Deller kill broke a 22-22 tie, before a service error and a Yale kill put the Bulldogs at set point. Autumn Leak got a kill to tie it at 24, and then both teams had attack errors to tie it at 25. A McGregor block gave Penn a set point, up 26-25, but a Yale kill tied it back up and then Penn had two attack errors in a row to hand the Bulldogs the set, 28-26.
 
The second set stayed close most of the way. Yale used a three-point run to break a 5-5 tie, but a Deller kill and a Bradshaw ace made it 11-10. The teams traded a few points, before a Flornes block tied things up at 13. At that point, Yale scored four points in a row, then traded points with the Quakers for several sideouts. The Bulldogs' lead was 21-18 after another Bradshaw ace, but the Ivy leaders got a kill from Mila Yarich and that set them off on a 4-1 run that closed out the second set.
 
The third set started 3-3, before Yale rolled off six points in a row to gain control. The lead extended to double digits at 15-5, the run 12-2 at that point, and quickly grew to 12 at 18-6. Penn cut the margin to single digits on three occasions after that, the last at 24-15, but a Quakers' service error ended things.
 
Up Next
Penn is home each of the next three weekends, starting next Friday when the Quakers host travel partner and rival Princeton at 7 p.m. at The Palestra.