PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team is at home for the first time in 2022 this weekend, hosting the Sheraton University City Invitational. The Quakers entertain George Washington, Providence, and city rival Temple with three matches taking place Friday and three more on Saturday. All six matches will be played in The Palestra.
 
Friday's Schedule (Friday Game Program
  Providence at Temple, noon - Live Stats 
  GW vs. Providence, 3:30 p.m. - Live Stats
  Penn vs. GW, 7 p.m. - Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
Saturday's Schedule (Saturday Game Program
  Penn vs. Providence, 11 a.m. - Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
  Temple vs. GW, 1:30 p.m. - Live Stats
  Penn vs. Temple, 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+!
 
About GW
The Colonials are 3-7 so far this season after a 1-3 weekend in D.C. with a win over Rider but losses to Binghamton, Georgetown and Coppin State.
 
About Providence
The Friars are 7-2 after sweeping their own Friar Classic last weekend. Along the way the hosts rolled to 3-0 sweeps over Saint Peter's and Holy Cross, sandwiching those around a 3-1 victory over NJIT.
 
About Temple
The Owls are 4-4 so far this season and enter their second Ivy League venue in as many weekends. TU was up at Cornell last weekend and came back from Ithaca with a win over the Big Red (3-2) after 3-1 losses to Colgate and UAlbany.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn was in California last weekend and came home licking some wounds after going 0-3 with all three losses coming via a 3-0 sweep.
 
*The trip to the Golden State represented a relative homecoming for several members of Penn's team. In fact, nearly half of Penn's roster (eight of 18 players) hails 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 Sydney Ormiston (Murrieta), 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).
 
*Penn has lost 16 sets this season but gave it a pretty good run in nine of them, scoring 23 points three times; 22 points three times; 21 points once; and 20 points twice.
 
*Freshman Abigail Reid was named to the all-tournament team at Fordham. The libero led Penn with 55 digs (5.00 d/s) and followed that up with 31 more in California to give her a team-leading 86 so far in 2022.
 
*Senior Madeline McGregor leads Penn with 54 kills on the young season, followed closely by Risch who has 51. Overall, eight different players have reached double figures in kills through the first six matches of the season.
 
*McGregor also leads Penn with seven service aces—one ahead of Reid who has six—and is second on the team with 11 blocks (1s/10a). Flornes is just ahead of McGregor and leads the team in that category, with 12 blocks (1s/11a).
 
*Freshman Anna Shohfi started the season at the setter position and leads the Quakers with 130 assists (8.67 a/s), but the sophomore Ormiston saw most of the action in that spot against Saint Mary's and San Francisco and has 54 assists (5.4 a/s).
 
*Penn has started 13 different players already this season, as head coach Meredith Schamun and her staff continue to tinker with the lineup ahead of next weekend's Ivy League opener at Princeton. Only two players have started all six matches to date: McGregor and Reid.
 
*Penn went 8-15 overall last year and finished sixth in the Ivy League with a 5-9 record. In the Ivy League's 2022 preseason media poll released last week, the Quakers were picked to finish sixth again.
 
*Penn returns two of its top four attackers from a year ago in seniors Autumn Leak and McGregor. Leak led the Quakers with 314 kills in 2021, hitting .247, and has 514 kills through two full seasons of play. (Penn did not play in 2020 due to Ivy League restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic.) McGregor, meanwhile, had 170 kills last year.
 
*Ormiston had 350 assists last year and is tops among returning players in that category.
 
*Penn's top two blockers from last year are gone, but six players who reached double figures in that category return led by Flornes with 35 (3s/32a), Leak with 34 (1s/33a), Paige Gillon with 28 (6s/22a) and McGregor with 26 (1s/25a). In addition, senior Elizabeth Ford started the 2021 season at middle blocker and had 12 blocks in 10 sets before a season-ending injury shut her down.
 
*One area that is up for grabs is libero/defensive specialist. The top four players in digs last year are gone, and only one returning player had more than 100 (Leak, with 104). Expect junior Julia Bradshaw and Alexander to see time as Penn looks to solidify that spot.
 
*Although she was hired in March 2020, this will only be 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.
 
*Seniors Ford, Leak and McGregor will serve as the 2022 team captains.