PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team is in New England each of the next two weekends, starting this Friday and Saturday when they make the Southern swing to face Yale and Brown.
 
Match 13 – PENN (2-10, 0-0 Ivy) at YALE (6-3, 1-0)
Friday, Sept. 29 | 7 p.m. | New Haven, Conn.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Match 14 – PENN at BROWN (9-2, 0-1)
Saturday, Sept. 30 | 5 p.m. | Providence, R.I.
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 Yale
The Bulldogs have won the last seven meetings, 13 of the last 14, and 19 of the last 21 since the Quakers beat them in a one-match playoff to earn the Ivy League's NCAA Championship bid in 2010. (Coincidentally, that is the last time the Red and Blue won in New Haven.) Yale swept Penn last year in New Haven, 3-0, but the teams went to five sets in Philadelphia.
 
The Series with Brown
The Bears have won the last four meetings and six of the last seven. That included a 3-0 win in Providence and a 3-2 victory in Philadelphia last year. Penn's last win in Providence came in 2017, a 3-2 decision, and the last win overall came on October 11, 2019 in Philadelphia. (3-0).
 
About Yale
Malie Somera is second among Ivy players in digs/set (4.34), while setter Carly Diehl—a first-team All-Ivy pick a year ago—is third among Ivy players in assists/set (9.43). Senior Audrey Leak was a first-team All-Ivy pick a year ago, while senior Maile Somera and junior Mila Yarich were second-team All-Ivy selections and junior Gigi Barr received honorable mention All-Ivy recognition.
 
About Brown
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 seventh nationally in hitting percentage at .471 and is third with 115 kills, while sophomore teammate Mariia Siorova has 110 kills. Jessie Golden currently leads the Ivy League in digs/set (5.68, a full 1.34 d/s more than Somera), while setter Cierra Jenkins—the 2021 Ivy League Player of the Year—is second in the league in assists/set (10.15). Outside hitter Kate Sheire 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.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its third season under head coach Meredith Schamun, who recently signed a contract extension.
 
*Penn's schedule has not necessarily featured any "name" opponents but there's 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.
 
*Penn hasn't been too far from flipping some of its results in the non-conference season. Of the 25 sets lost by the Quakers this season, three times they went beyond regulation—i.e. the winner needed more than 25 points to win—while five times they scored 22 points and three other times they had 21.
 
*Freshman Zada Sanger enters the weekend tops among Ivy League players in kills (155) and is second kills per set (3.69), just behind Cornell's Eliza Konvicka (139, 3.86); Sanger's 3.69 kills/set is tied for 77th nationally (ninth among freshmen).
 
*After going for 15 (Friday) and a match-high 19 (Saturday) kills in last weekend's matches with Princeton, Sanger has now reached double figures in nine of her 12 collegiate matches with another nine-kill match.
 
*Sophomore Jalen Tennyson was on the Ivy League honor roll this past week. She has steadily increased her production, hitting season/career highs in kills each of the last three matches—six vs. NJIT, seven vs. Princeton, eight at Princeton—and coming up with 11 blocks (five solo) across that stretch after accumulating nine in Penn's first nine matches.
 
*Tennyson also is hitting .260 this season (47K-20E-104A), 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 27 as senior Madison Risch has 22 across the last three matches.
 
*Sophomore Claire Deller and freshman Bella Rittenberg were named all-tournament at the Delaware State Tournament two 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 64 and 63 kills, respectively.
 
*Senior Jo Armstrong and sophomore Anna Shohfi have split duties at the setter spot so far this season; Armstrong has a team-high 297 assists—her 9.28 assists/set is fourth among Ivy League setters—while Shohfi has 94 (7.83 a/s).
 
*Freshman Elsa McDermott continues to lead the team with 112 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 led all players with 22 digs in last Friday's 3-1 loss to Princeton, then followed up with 19 more in Saturday's 3-2 decision at Princeton.
 
*Tennyson and Deller are the only two players with double-digit block totals, Tennyson with 20 (6s/14a) and Deller with 19 (8s/11a). Junior Ella Green had four block solos.
 
*Rittenberg leads Penn with 12 service aces, followed closely by Deller (11), McDermott (9), Sanger (8) and Risch (7).
 
*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 and will not play this weekend—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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