PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team closes out its five-match Ivy League homestand this weekend, with some of the iron of the league coming to The Palestra. League leader Yale (18-1, 10-0 Ivy League) is in town on Friday night, while defending champion Brown (11-8, 7-3) is here on Saturday.
 
MATCH 21 – PENN vs. YALE
Friday, Nov. 4 | 7 p.m.
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
MATCH 22 – PENN vs. BROWN
Saturday, Nov. 5 | 5 p.m.
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Ivy League on ESPN
A reminder that the Ivy League is paired with ESPN and you will be able to find all Penn home games, as well as road Ivy matches and select non-conference road games, on ESPN+ this fall with the same high broadcast quality you've come to expect. ESPN+ is a subscription-based service that offers monthly and yearly packages. Click here to subscribe to ESPN+!
 
The Series with Yale
The Bulldogs have dominated this series of late, winning six in a row, 12 of the last 13, and 18 of the last 20 meetings. That includes a 3-0 win in New Haven on October 15 (28-26, 25-19, 25-15). Yale swept the series last year, taking a 3-1 decision here at The Palestra and then eking out a 3-2 decision in New Haven.
 
The Series with Brown
The Quakers and Bears have been relatively level through the years, including the last 10 meetings that have seen the teams go 5-5 against each other. That said, Brown has won three in a row over Penn including a 3-0 decision in Providence on October 14 (25-13, 25-21, 25-17). Last year, the Bears took a 3-1 decision here at The Palestra and then swept the Quakers in Providence. Penn's last win here in Philly came in 2019.
 
Thank You, Seniors!
Prior to Friday night's match with Yale, Penn will honor its three graduating senior captains: Elizabeth Ford, Autumn Leak, and Madeline McGregor. Coincidentally, Autumn's sister, Audrey, plays for the Bulldogs.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn has been eliminated from participating in the inaugural Ivy League Volleyball Tournament, which will take place November 18-20 and be hosted by the regular-season champion.
 
*Penn hit a season-high .295 last Saturday against Harvard, the Quakers' ratio of kills (53) to errors (17) exactly matching their best ratio from earlier in the season against Cornell on October 8.
 
*Senior Autumn Leak continues to impress. She was the only Penn player to reach double figures in kills in both matches last weekend, with 10 against Dartmouth and then a match-high 15 against Harvard. Overall, the second-team All-Ivy pick from a year ago has reached double digits in kills in each of the Quakers' last three matches, six times in 10 Ivy matches, and nine times overall in 2022.
 
*Sophomore Ella Green led Penn with a career-high 18 kills last Friday against the Big Green—hitting .267 in the match—then followed that up with nine against the Crimson.
 
*Senior Madeline McGregor had a combined 13 kills last weekend and continues to lead Penn with 160 overall. Leak has 155 kills but tops the squad in kills per set (2.92). Green is second behind McGregor in total kills (157) and second behind Leak in kills per set (2.57).
 
*Senior Elizabeth Ford has just 49 kills this season but remains Penn's most opportunistic hitter with a .354 hitting percentage. She also has 16.0 blocks (2s/14a).
 
*Ford was particularly sharp last weekend, with 16 kills and just three errors on 27 attacks for a .481 hitting percentage.
 
*Freshman Abigail Reid, Penn's libero, remains second among Ivy Leaguers in overall digs per set (4.49) and digs per set in Ivy matches (4.29); in both cases she is behind only Princeton's Cameron Dames (4.83 overall, 4.53 Ivy play).
 
*Reid's 4.49 digs-per-set average is fourth among freshmen nationally and 64th overall.
 
*Freshman Anna Shohfi enters this weekend leading the team with 367 assists and remains fifth among Ivy players in assists per set in conference play (8.33).
 
*It was junior Jo Armstrong at the setter spot last weekend, however, as she collected 79 assists (11.29 a/s) across the two matches as well as 13 digs and a block assist.
 
*Reid also has 19 service aces this season, tops on the team ahead of McGregor (16) and junior Madison Risch (10). Don't be surprised to see juniors Julia Bradshaw and Tatum DeMann and sophomore Kat Alexander—who had a season-high 12 digs last Saturday—brought on to serve through Penn's rotations.
 
*Junior Emerson Flornes leads the net defense with 36.0 blocks (5s/31a), followed closely by McGregor with 35.0 blocks (2s/33a) and freshman Claire Deller with 33.0 blocks (2s/31a).
 
*Only two players have started all 20 matches to date: McGregor and Reid.
 
*Reid and Deller have both earned all-tournament honors this season, Reid getting hers the first weekend of the season at Fordham's Rose Hill Classic and Deller being honored two weeks later at Penn's Sheraton University City Invitational.
 
*Penn's trip to the Golden State the second week of the season—the Quakers lost matches to CSU-Northridge, Saint Mary's College, and the University of San Francisco—represented a relative homecoming for several members of Penn's team. In fact, nearly half of Penn's roster (seven of 16 players) hail from California including two who consider the Bay Area home: junior Madison Risch (Lafayette) and sophomore Ella Green (Greenbrae). The others are junior Emerson Flornes (Laguna Beach); sophomores Kat Alexander (Los Angeles) and Kaya Johnson (L.A.); and freshmen Claire Deller (Del Mar) and Jalen Tennyson (L.A.). Three of them—Alexander, Johnson and Tennyson—also attended the Marlborough School together.
 
*Penn opened the 2022 campaign at Fordham's Rose Hill Classic, going 1-2 with losses to Niagara (3-1) and the host Rams (3-0) but ending the weekend with a win over Fairleigh Dickinson (3-1).
 
*Although she was hired in March 2020, this is only Schamun's second season as head coach of the Quakers. Penn did not play a 2020 season due to Ivy League restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic.