PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team put an exclamation point on a celebratory Saturday at The Palestra, defeating Columbia 3-1 on a day when the program honored former coaches Ralph Hippolyte and Joe Sagula as well as the 1983 and 2003 Ivy League championship squads.
Set scores on Saturday were 25-22, 25-19, 20-25, 25-19.
Penn improved to 3-15 overall and 1-7 in Ivy League play. while Columbia fell to 2-14 and remains winless in Ivy play at 0-7.
Quaker Notemeal
*For the second time in as many nights, freshman
Zada Sanger led the Penn attack with 15 kills. She also had seven digs and a block assist and hit .213 on the night.
*Freshman
Bella Rittenberg was a monster on Saturday, with 14 kills on a .478 hitting day (14K-3E-23A). She also had two block assists and six digs.
*Junior
Kaya Johnson had four kills on 12 attacks and led the Quakers with their only block solo and three block assists.
*Sophomore
Anna Shohfi went the distance at setter on Saturday and ended the night with 37 assists, five digs, a match-high three service aces, and four kills on 13 attacks.
*Sophomore libero
Abigail Reid led Penn with 13 digs while freshman
Elsa McDermott added 10 to go with two service aces.
*Senior
Julia Bradshaw also had two service aces on Saturday night.
*Columbia got nine kills each from Eva Atkins and Logan Harlock, while Ruby van der Heide had 23 assists and 12 digs and Lauren Cho led all players with 19 digs. Soah Franklin had six kills, hitting .385, and on net defense she had a block solo and three block assists.
How It Happened
The first set on Saturday night had eight ties and five lead changes, but Penn won four points in a row to go up 12-10 and never looked back. The Quakers' biggest leads in the set came at 22-16 and 23-17, the latter on a Sanger kill. Columbia responded with the next four points, forcing a Penn timeout, but out of the stoppage
Feyi Ogunlari put down a kill to create some room and then a Columbia service error ended it. Sanger had five kills and hit .333 in the set, while Reid had more than half of her digs on the night with seven.
Columbia opened up a 13-8 lead in the second set, but a Lions service error started a four-point Penn run that got the Quakers within a point at 13-12. CU scored the next two points, but another service error generated another four-point run which put the Red and Blue in front, 16-15. Columbia tied it on a Juliana Williamson kill, but Penn scored the next five points to stretch out a 21-16 lead. Overall, it was a 13-3 run that turned this set around as the Quakers essentially traded points the rest of the way to victory. Rittenberg had three kills on five attacks in the set, hitting .600.
The third set was another close affair, the teams tying nine times with the last one coming at 16-16. A pair of kills by the Lions' Amanda Holsen around a Penn attack error was followed by a Franklin kill, a 4-1 Columbia run forcing a Penn timeout. The stoppage didn't work, Franklin putting down another kill and a Penn set error making it 22-17 and bringing the Quakers' final timeout of the set. The hosts couldn't get closer than four the rest of the way. Rittenberg had five more kills on seven attacks, hitting .571.
Penn re-asserted itself in the fourth set. Down, 5-3, the Quakers reeled off eight points in a row—four of them coming off the arm of Sanger. It was 14-8 when Columbia ran off four straight points to get within two, then answered a two-point Penn run with two more points to force a Red and Blue timeout with the score 16-14. The teams traded the next eight points, Penn's lead fluctuating between two and three points, before a Johnson kill and a Shohfi ace made the score 22-18. Columbia called its final timeout, but another Sanger kill on the other side of the break made it 23-18. The Lions got one final kill from Holsen, but a Sanger kill and a Columbia attack error finished things off. Sanger had seven kills and hit .400 in Saturday's final set, while Rittenberg had four kills and hit .429.
Up Next
Penn is off next weekend before hosting Brown and Yale on October 27-28. Both of those matches will start at 5 p.m.
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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