PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team is back in New England this weekend, this time making the Northern swing to face Dartmouth and Harvard.
 
Match 15 – PENN (2-12, 0-4 Ivy) at DARTMOUTH (5-7, 2-1)
Friday, Oct. 6 | 7 p.m. | Hanover, N.H.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats

Match 16 – PENN at HARVARD (9-3, 2-1)
Saturday, Oct. 7 | 5 p.m. | Cambridge, Mass.
Watch Live 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 Dartmouth
The Big Green have won three in a row in the series, including a season sweep last year with a 3-1 win in Hanover and a 3-0 sweep four weeks later in Philly. Prior to this Dartmouth run, Penn had won four in a row including a season sweep in 2019.
 
The Series with Harvard
The Crimson swept last year's season series, taking a 3-2 decision in Cambridge and a 3-1 victory in Philadelphia. Prior to that, the teams split in both 2021—Penn's win coming in Cambridge, 3-2—and in 2019 when the Quakers won 3-1 at The Palestra.
 
About Dartmouth
The Big Green boast a trio of seniors who earned All-Ivy recognition a year ago: Ellie Blain and Bomi Ogunlari were second-team picks, while Amelia Gibbs received honorable mention. Yes, Ogunlari is in fact the sister of Penn sophomore Feyi Ogunlari! Blain leads the Green in kills/set (2.41) followed by sophomore Kauany Gutz (2.28), but Dartmouth has eight players with at least 20 kills. Makenzie Arent and Karen Murphy are the setters, Arent averaging 5.34 assists/set and Murphy 3.71. Murphy also leads the team with 15 service aces. Emma Engstrom has a team-high 120 digs (2.79 d/s), while Gibbs (30 blocks) and Ogunlari (26) lead the net defense.
 
About Harvard
Katie Vorhies (119 kills) and Ashley Wang (118) lead the attack; Wang is also the primary feeder for the Crimson, with 227 assists (5.16 a/s) with Rocky Aguirre (4.43 a/s) providing support at the setter spot. Wang also leads all Ivy League players with 27 service aces, nearly doubling anyone else's total in the league. Lindsey Zhang leads the team with 149 digs (3.39 d/s), followed by Wang who has 103 (2.34 d/s). The net defense is superb, as four players have at least 26 blocks: Ariana White—who leads the Ivy League with 54 (1.23 b/s)—Ryleigh Patterson (51), Wang (43), and Ava Rauser (26).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its third season under head coach Meredith Schamun, who recently signed a contract extension.
 
*Penn is still looking for its first Ivy win, but the Ivy League didn't do the Quakers any favors with its scheduling. The Red and Blue opened with four matches against Princeton, Yale and Brown—the teams picked top three in the preseason poll, by a wide margin—with three of them coming on the road. This weekend's opponents were picked fourth and fifth, respectively, and once again the Quakers are away from home. (These will actually be their fourth and fifth straight conference road matches.)
 
*Penn's non-conference schedule did not necessarily featured any "name" opponents but there was some depth. At the season-opening Molly Howard-Gerwig Memorial hosted by Houston Christian, the Quakers played an HCU team picked to win the Southland Conference and a UT Rio Grande Valley squad picked third in the WAC. At the Penn Invitational, the Red and Blue hosted a Coppin State team that is picked to win the MEAC after winning 23 matches last year and is already 10-2 this season. Last weekend, Penn faced a Delaware State team that won 24 matches last year, won the MEAC, and played in the NCAAs.
 
*Freshman Zada Sanger continues to lead Ivy League players in kills—she enters the weekend with 170—and is second in kills per set (3.54) behind only Cornell's Eliza Konvicka (159, 3.79); Sanger's 3.54 kills/set is ninth nationally among freshmen hitters.
 
*After going for 15 (Friday) and a match-high 19 (Saturday) kills in Penn's back-to-back with Princeton two weeks ago, Sanger has reached double figures in nine of her 14 collegiate matches with another nine-kill match. She had a combined 15 last  weekend at Yale (8) and Brown (7).
 
*Sophomore Jalen Tennyson has steadily increased her production, collecting at least six kills in four of Penn's last five matches—she hit .750 against Yale last Friday (6K-0E-8A)—and coming up with 13 blocks (five solo) across that stretch after accumulating nine in Penn's first nine matches.
 
*Tennyson also is hitting .252 this season (53K-23E-119A), tops among the nine players who have a double-figure kill total this season.
 
*That's right, nine different players have reached double figures in the kill column. In fact, seven have at least 35 as senior Madison Risch has 32 across the last five matches. Risch, by the way, also had no errors in the Yale match last weekend, hitting .375 (9K-0E-24A).
 
*Sophomore Claire Deller and freshman Bella Rittenberg were named all-tournament at the Delaware State Tournament three weekends ago. For Deller it marked her second all-tourney nod this season, after she and Sanger were named all-tournament earlier in the season at the Penn Invitational Presented by Sheraton.
 
*Rittenberg also earned a spot on the Ivy League Honor Roll for her play at DSU, including the Quakers' 3-1 win over NJIT when she had 19 kills and hit .667—both season/career bests—and added nine digs, a block solo, and a service ace. She also led all players with four aces in Penn's loss to Georgetown.
 
*Rittenberg and Deller are third and fourth on the team with 78 and 69 kills, respectively.
 
*Senior Jo Armstrong has appeared to establish herself as the team's setter over the last few weeks; she has a team-high 348 assists—her 9.16 assists/set is fourth among Ivy League setters—while sophomore Anna Shohfi has 94 (6.71 a/s).
 
*Freshman Elsa McDermott continues to lead the team with 132 digs, but sophomore Abigail Reid has moved back into the libero spot after missing much of the non-conference schedule due to injury. An honorable mention All-Ivy selection at libero a year ago as a freshman, Reid has led all players in digs twice already in Ivy play and has 97 on the season (4.22 d/s).
 
*Tennyson, Deller and Sanger are the only three players with double-digit block totals, Tennyson with 22 (6s/16a), Deller with 20 (9s/11a), and Sanger with 10 (1s/9a). Junior Ella Green has four block solos.
 
*Deller leads Penn with 14 service aces, followed closely by Rittenberg (12), McDermott (9), and Sanger (8).
 
*Penn opened the season 0-3 at the Molly Howard-Gerwig Memorial Tournament, hosted by Houston Christian University. The Quakers fell 3-0 to the hosts—picked to win the Southland Conference—as well as UTRGV (which is picked third in the WAC). On Saturday, Penn was right there but lost 3-0 to Arkansas State that was closer than the score would indicate (set scores were 25-22, 25-21, 25-22).
 
*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 but continues to get closer to getting on the floor—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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