PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team put up a good fight against Princeton on Friday night at The Palestra, but the Tigers came back from a first-set loss to escape with a four-set victory.
Set scores were 22-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-18.
Penn drops to 2-9 on the season while Princeton is now 4-5. Friday's match was the Ivy League opener for both.
Quaker Notemeal
*Freshman
Zada Sanger had another nice night offensively, coming up with 15 kills to lead all players. She also had two digs and a service ace.
*Senior
Madison Risch finished the night with eight kills, 13 digs and two block assists.
*Sophomore
Jalen Tennyson had seven kills, hitting .417, and led Penn with five block assists.
*Sophomore libero
Abigail Reid led all players with 22 digs, while freshman
Bella Rittenberg was right behind Risch in that category with 12.
*Senior
Jo Armstrong went the distance at setter and had 39 assists to go with 10 digs and two block assists.
*Junior co-captain
Ella Green finished the night with four kills and two block assists.
*Sophomore
Claire Deller and Rittenberg both had three kills, and Deller also had the Quakers' only two block solos as well as a block assist and four digs.
*Princeton got 14 kills from Kathleen Bishop and 11 from Lucia Scalamandre, who also had six block assists and a block solo. Sydney Draper finished with 42 assists, 13 digs and two block assists while recording seven kills on a .583 hitting night. Sydney Bold led the Tigers with 19 digs, one of five Princeton players to hit double digits in that category.
How It Happened
Princeton was the regular-season co-champion last year, and while there are plenty of new faces in the Tigers' lineup the start of Friday's match seemed to pick up where they left off in 2022. Penn was down 6-0 before the Quakers finally got on the board thanks to a Princeton attack error. It was still 8-2 when the Quakers came to life behind Armstrong's serve, however; the Red and Blue scored six straight points to draw level at 8-8, two of the last three coming off the arm of Tennyson. The teams tied again at 10-10, 11-11 and 12-12 before a three-point Princeton run forced a Penn timeout. Again the Quakers clawed back, and their three-point run tied things at 20-20 and forced the Tigers to take a timeout. The teams split the next four points to 22-22, before a Sanger kill gave Penn just its second lead of the set at 23-22. From there, a bad set by Princeton's setter and a Deller service ace capped a four-point run and gave Penn the first set. Sanger had five kills in the set, while Tennyson was four and hit a perfect 1.000 and Reid finished with 10 digs.
Penn kept the momentum in the early part of the second set, taking a quick 4-1 lead, but at that point Princeton took over. The Tigers won 11 of the next 12 points to establish a 12-5 lead and never looked back. The Quakers got as close as 15-12 with a three-point run as Risch had a kill and an ace, and that forced a Princeton timeout. Out of the stoppage, the Tigers won four points in a row to get their lead back up to seven and never stopped, the run ultimately getting to 10-2 for a 25-14 victory. Sanger had another four kills in the set.
It looked like Princeton might run away in the third set, as well, the Tigers taking an early 7-1 lead and expanding it to 12-4. The teams essentially traded points for awhile after that, but at 17-9 Penn used three straight kills by Sanger and a block by Tennyson and Armstrong as the impetus for a five-point run that got the Quakers within three at 17-14. The teams traded points to 18-15, at which point Princeton ran off four in a row to gain some separation on the way to a 25-21 win. Sanger had five kills in the set while Tennyson had three of her block assists.
Needing a win to stay alive, Penn jumped out with six of the first seven points in the fourth set. However, Princeton came back with a 6-2 run and got within one, at 8-7. It was still 14-11 in Penn's favor when the Tigers scored three in a row to tie things for the first time in the set, and the teams then traded points up to 17-17. At that point a Penn service error was the springboard for a 5-0 Princeton run that proved too much to overcome. The Tigers' final run was 8-1 as they closed out the 25-18 set win for the match victory.
Up Next
Penn and Princeton match up again tomorrow evening, this time on the Tigers' campus. First serve is scheduled for 5 p.m.
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
