DOVER, Del. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team dropped its first match in Saturday action at the Delaware State Tournament, falling to the host Hornets, 3-1.
 
The Quakers won the opening set, 25-22, but DSU (7-6)—the defending MEAC champion who played in last year's NCAA Championship—took the next three sets 25-16, 25-8, 25-12.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Freshman Zada Sanger had 10 kills, while Bella Rittenberg added seven. Sophomores Claire Deller and Jalen Tennyson had five each.
 
*Senior Jo Armstrong went the distance at setter and finished with 26 assists.
 
*Freshman Elsa McDermott started the DSU match at libero and led Penn with nine digs.
 
*Sophomore Abigail Reid, who earned honorable mention at libero a year ago but missed the first two weeks due to injury, stepped back into that position during the Del State match. She ended the DSU match with five digs.
 
*Del State had two players finish with 10 kills (Kim Czepukaitis and Valeria Otero), while Alondra Maldonado had nine and Ella Sanders added eight. Maria Caratini had 11 digs to lead all players, while Naz Tuncay had four service aces.
 
How It Happened
Penn used a good early start, scoring six straight points to turn a 4-2 deficit into an 8-4 lead. DSU responded with four straight to make it 8-8, and the teams were tied seven more times to 17-17. The Hornets were in front, 19-17, when Penn got kills from Rittenberg, Sanger and Tennyson and a Sanger service ace as part of a 5-0 run that put the Quakers up by three. Delaware State scored the next two points to get within one, forcing a Penn timeout, then tied things up on the other side of the stoppage. However, kills by Tennyson and Deller gave the Quakers set point, then a DSU attack error gave Penn the win. Sanger had five kills in the set, while Tennyson had four and hit .600.
 
DSU went in front early in the second set, using a four-point run to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 7-4 lead that the Hornets never relinquished. It was still 9-6 when Delaware State used a 7-3 run to achieve some separation. Penn ran off four points, all off DSU errors, to get back within three at 16-13, but kills by the Hornets' Kelsie Dawson and Otero set them off on a 7-1 run to get the lead back up to nine. DSU cruised from there. Sanger and Rittenberg both had three kills, Sanger hitting .750 in the set.
 
The home team kept the momentum rolling into the third set. DSU's lead was 11-3 early in the third set, the margin hit double digits at 15-5, and a seven-point run sealed Penn's fate by making it 22-6 and the Hornets took it from there.
 
Penn hung around for the early part of the fourth set, but once again were helpless to stop Delaware State once the Hornets got rolling. The teams were tied five times to 8-8, and it was a one-point set (10-9) after a DSU service error. However, a Penn error gave the Hornets a two-point lead and sent them off on a knockout nine-point run that made the score 19-9. A pair of Green kills briefly slowed things, but DSU responded with four straight points to up its lead to 12 (23-11) and cruised to the win from there.
 
Up Next
Penn concludes play at the DSU Tournament with NJIT at 4 p.m.