PHILADELPHIA – After a rare bye week in the schedule, the University of Pennsylvania volleyball team is back at home this weekend to face Brown and Yale at The Palestra. The Bulldogs enter the weekend leading the Ivy League standings at a perfect 8-0, while the Bears come to The Palestra on Friday with a 5-3 mark and tied for third in the standings with Harvard.
 
Friday is DIG PINK at Penn!
Friday night's match with Brown also will be Penn's annual DIG PINK match, the Quakers pairing with the Side-Out Foundation to fund metastatic breast cancer research and treatments. Learn more about the DIG PINK initative here!
 
Match 19 – PENN (3-15, 1-7 Ivy) vs. BROWN (14-4, 5-3)
Friday, Oct. 27 | 5 p.m. | Philadelphia
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Match Program (PDF)
 
Match 20 – PENN vs. YALE (13-3, 8-0)
Saturday, Oct. 28 | 5 p.m. | Philadelphia
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Match Program (PDF)
 
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 Brown
The Bears have won the last five meetings and seven of the last eight. That included a 3-0 win in Providence earlier this season. Last season, Brown came to Philadelphia and was able to escape The Palestra with a 3-2 victory. Penn's last win in the series came on October 11, 2019 here in Philadelphia (3-0).
 
About The Bears
A unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection last year and a unanimous choice as the 2021 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, junior Beau Vanderlaan leads the league and is ninth nationally in hitting percentage at .435 and is third with 178 kills, while sophomore teammate Mariia Sidorova has 150 kills. Jessie Golden currently leads the Ivy League and is fifth nationally in digs/set (5.60), while setter Cierra Jenkins—the 2021 Ivy League Player of the Year—is third in the league in assists/set (9.86). Outside hitter Kate Sheire (153 kills this season) was second-team All-Ivy last year, while L/DS Victoria Vo was Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman in 2021 and currently shares the Ivy League lead with 27 service aces.
 
The Series with Yale
The Bulldogs have won the last eight meetings, 14 of the last 15, and 20 of the last 22 since the Quakers beat them in a one-match playoff to earn the Ivy League's NCAA Championship bid in 2010. Yale swept Penn earlier this season in New Haven, 3-0; however, like in the Brown series these teams went to five sets when they met here in Philadelphia last year.
 
About The Bulldogs
Senior Maile Somera is second among Ivy players in digs/set (4.41), while setter Carly Diehl—a first-team All-Ivy pick a year ago—is second among Ivy players and 31st nationally in assists/set (10.38). Senior Audrey Leak (fourth among Ivy players in kills per set, 3.25) was a first-team All-Ivy pick a year ago, while Somera and junior Mila Yarich were second-team All-Ivy selections and junior Gigi Barr (third among Ivy players with a .350 hitting percentage) received honorable mention All-Ivy recognition
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its third season under head coach Meredith Schamun, who recently signed a contract extension.
 
*Penn started the Ivy League season at home with Princeton, then played five straight road matches before finally coming back two weekends ago to host Cornell and Columbia. The Quakers are currently in the midst of a stretch that has them playing four in a row and six of their last eight at home.
 
*Penn's non-conference schedule did not necessarily feature any "name" opponents but there was some quality. At the season-opening Molly Howard-Gerwig Memorial hosted by Houston Christian, the Quakers played an HCU team that is currently 5-2 and third the Southland Conference and a UT Rio Grande Valley squad that is 5-1 and tied for second in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). At the Penn Invitational, the Red and Blue hosted a Coppin State team that leads the MEAC at 6-0 after winning 23 matches last year. The final weekend before Ivy play, Penn faced a Delaware State team that is 4-2 and third in the MEAC after winning 24 matches last year, capturing the MEAC title, and playing in the NCAAs. The non-conference schedule also featured a pair of Big East opponents, Villanova and Georgetown.
 
*Freshman Zada Sanger remains second among Ivy players in kills—she enters the weekend with 202—and is second in kills per set (3.37) behind only Cornell's Eliza Konvicka (231 kills, 3.61 k/s); Sanger's 3.37 kills/set is 17th nationally among freshman hitters.
 
*Sophomore Abigail Reid has led all players in digs in six of the nine matches in which she's started this season; she leads the team and is third among Ivy players with 4.19 digs/set. (The Ivy leader is Brown's Jessie Golden.) Elsa McDermott, who was Penn's libero while Reid was injured early, is second on the team with 149 digs (3.04 d/s).
 
*Another freshman, Bella Rittenberg, led the Penn attack in its most recent outing, a 3-1 win over Columbia on October 14. The freshman had 14 kills and hit .478 in the match (14K-3E-23A). Overall, she is second on the team 120 kills, third in digs (118), and leads the Quakers with 17 service aces.
 
*Sophomores Claire Deller and Jalen Tennyson lead the Quakers on net defense, each of them accumulating 26.0 blocks so far this season (Deller 10s/16a, Tennyson 6s/20a). Deller is also second on the team with 16 service aces and third with 86 kills.
 
*Senior Jo Armstrong and sophomore Anna Shohfi continue to share the setter duties. Armstrong has gotten more reps, playing in 48 sets and dishing out 426 assists; her 8.88 assists/set is fourth among Ivy setters. Shohfi, meanwhile, went the distance in the win over Columbia and has 135 assists across her 20 sets so far this season.
 
*Green entered the season as the top returning player in terms of kills (200) and kills per set (2.50) while three other returning players had at least 75 kills last season: Risch (81), senior Emerson Flornes (76), and Deller (79).
 
*Flornes—who was injured a few weeks ago and is unlikely to return—and Deller also led the net defense, Flornes topping the team with 45 blocks (5s/40a) and Deller finishing third with 33 (2s/31a). Green had 24 blocks last year (5s/19a).
 
*Reid received honorable mention All-Ivy recognition last year after she led the Quakers with 414 digs. Her 4.50 digs/set were second among Ivy League players, third among freshmen nationally, and 63rd nationally overall.
 
*Reid also led Penn with 21 service aces in 2022. Risch had 14 aces on the season, while Shohfi and senior Julia Bradshaw both finished with 10.
 
*Shohfi took a majority of the reps at setter last season and led Penn with 525 assists; her 8.20 assists/set were fourth among Ivy players. Shohfi also was third in digs (156), and she proved opportunistic on the attack with 53 kills and a .271 hitting percentage.
 
*Armstrong played 24 sets at setter last year and had 245 assists (10.21 a/s).
 
*Flornes and Green are this year's captains.
 
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