PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team has one final tournament test before getting into Ivy League play next weekend against Princeton. That test comes this Friday and Saturday when the Quakers make the short trip to Dover, Del., for the Delaware State Tournament. The Red and Blue will face the host Hornets on Saturday afternoon, sandwiching that match around their first meeting with Georgetown since 1986 (Friday afternoon) and NJIT (Saturday).
 
DELAWARE STATE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Friday
  Penn vs. Georgetown | 3 p.m. | Live Stats
Saturday
  Penn vs. Delaware State | 1:30 p.m. | Watch on YouTube | Live Stats
  Penn vs. NJIT | 4 p.m. | Live Stats
 
The Series with Georgetown
The Quakers and Hoyas are meeting for the first time since 1986. They played each other six times from 1979-86, splitting the series 3-3. The most recent matchup came on September 26, 1986 and ended as a 3-2 Penn win at the Penn Invitational.
 
The Series with Delaware State
The Quakers and Hornets are meeting for the third time but the first in Dover. DSU has come to Philadelphia twice, most recently in 2018 when Penn gained a 3-1 win. The other matchup came in 2015 and was a 3-0 Red and Blue victory.
 
The Series with NJIT
The Quakers and Highlanders have met just one time before, the Quakers making the trip to Newark during the 2015 season and coming home with a 3-0 victory. Of note, Penn volunteer assistant coach Michaela Dungan played her college volleyball at NJIT, graduating two years ago.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its third season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*Freshman Zada Sanger enters the weekend leading the Ivy League in kills (100); her 4.17 kills/set leads the league and is 33rd nationally (fifth among freshmen).
 
*Sanger and sophomore Claire Deller were named to the all-tournament team at last weekend's Penn Invitational Presented by Sheraton. The Quakers went 1-2 at the event, defeating Lafayette on Friday (3-0), falling to Coppin State on Saturday morning (3-0), then losing the rematch with the Leopards on Saturday afternoon (3-1).
 
*Sophomore Feyi Ogunlari is second on the team with 38 kills after she had 11 against Villanova on September 6 and 10 two nights later in the win over Lafayette.
 
*Sophomore Claire Deller is third with 36 kills and is hitting at a .278 clip so far this season, tops among the five players who have at least a double-digit kill total so far this season (freshman Bella Rittenberg 29, sophomore Jalen Tennyson 18).
 
*Senior Jo Armstrong and sophomore Anna Shohfi have split duties at the setter spot so far this season; Armstrong has a team-high 141 assists—her 9.40 assists/set is third among Ivy League setters—while Shohfi has 73 (8.11 a/s).
 
*Freshman Elsa McDermott continues to lead the defense from the libero position, with 96 digs; her 4.06 digs/set is fourth among Ivy players. She is followed in the category by two of her classmates, Rittenberg (55 digs) and Sanger (47).
 
*McDermott also tops the team with eight service aces, while Rittenberg and Sanger have six each and Deller has five.
 
*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).
 
*Junior Ella 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: senior Madison Risch (81), senior Emerson Flornes (76) and Deller (79).
 
*Flornes—who was injured early last weekend and sat the rest of the Penn Invitational—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).
 
*Sophomore Abigail Reid—who has not yet played this season due to injury—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.