PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team dropped a tighter-than-it-looks, 3-1 decision to Columbia in its first Ivy League home match of the 2022 season. Set scores were 25-23, 25-15, 23-25, 25-22.
 
Penn fell to 1-13 overall and remains winless in Ivy play at 0-4. Columbia improved to 4-9 overall and is now 1-3 in Ivy play.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Sophomore Ella Green led the Quakers with 11 kills, the fourth time in seven matches she has reached double digits in that category.
 
*Senior Autumn Leak came off the bench and had eight kills on Friday night.
 
*Anna Shohfi played the first two sets at setter and had 14 assists, before Jo Armstrong took over in the third and fourth sets and finished with 18 assists.
 
*Freshman Abigail Reid once again led all players in the match with 18 digs, while sophomore Kat Alexander had 11.
 
*Senior Madeline McGregor had a team-high four block assists to go with six kills. Claire Deller, Elizabeth Ford and Emerson Flornes had two block assists each.
 
How It Happened
Columbia scored the first three points of the night, but Penn scored the next three and that was the start of a back-and-forth set that had 15 ties and six lead changes. The last of the ties came at 19-19, at which time the Lions' attack roared with kills from Eva Atkins and Logan Harlock. That forced a Penn timeout, but out of the break Columbia scored twice more on kills from Kiara Robichaud and Saj McBurrows and it was 23-19. Penn took its second and final timeout, and a kill from Green ended the run, but Columbia scored the next point for set point. Penn held off three of them, two from Claire Deller kills, and it was 24-23 after a Columbia attack error. However, the Lions took a timeout at that point and settled things, winning the point out of the break for the 25-23 victory. Deller had three kills in the set and hit .500.
 
The second set started evenly, as well, the teams tying at every point up to seven. At that juncture, Columbia reeled off three in a row and five of the next six points, getting to 12-8. Another three-point run opened the Lions' advantage to 18-11 and they cruised from there to the 25-15 win.
 
Columbia looked like it might sweep the night, the Lions using an 8-3 run early in the third set to break a 4-4 tie and go up 12-7. It was still a five-point set at 17-12 when Penn made a modest move to get within three, at 20-17, and then the Quakers took advantage of a Columbia attack error to go on a 4-1 run that knotted the score at 21-21. McBurrows and Green traded kills on the next four points, making it 23-23, but then kills from Leak and Deller gave the Quakers the set win and kept hope alive. Green had six kills in the set, hitting .300, while Leak had three and hit .250.
 
Penn kept the momentum going early in the fourth set, taking a 12-9 lead off another Green kill. However, the next four points proved critical, as a Penn service error was followed by three consecutive blocks by the Lions. At that point all the momentum was with the guests, and they scored three more points in a row to make it a 7-0 run for a 16-12 lead. Penn got within two on a pair of occasions after that, at 16-14 and 18-16, at which point Columbia scored four of the next five points to go in front 22-17. Penn held off a pair of match points at 24-20, the first on a ball-handling error and the next on a block by McGregor and Flornes. However, McBurrows put one final kill down—she had 13 kills on the night, one of three Lions to do so—and that ended the match.
 
Up Next
Penn is back at home Saturday afternoon, hosting Cornell at 5 p.m. in The Palestra.