NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team ran into a buzzsaw in defending Ivy League champion Yale on Friday night, and after giving the Bulldogs a great battle in the first set the Quakers were swept at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, 3-0.
 
Set scores were 28-26, 25-11, 25-18.
 
Penn fell to 2-11 on the season and remains winless at 0-3 in Ivy League play. Yale, meanwhile, improved to 7-3 overall and is still unbeaten in Ivy play at 2-0.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Senior Madison Risch led Penn's attack on Friday night, putting down nine kills without an error and hitting .375 on the night. She also had two digs and an assist.
 
*Freshman Bella Rittenberg had eight kills and hit .353 on Friday night, while Zada Sanger also had eight kills and added five digs and a block assist.
 
*Sophomore Jalen Tennyson had six kills on eight attacks without an error, a .750 hitting night, and added a block assist.
 
*Sophomore libero Abigail Reid led all players in the match with 16 digs and had the Quakers' only service ace on the night, while Elsa McDermott was back in the starting lineup and had eight digs..
 
*Senior setter Jo Armstrong had 28 assists and added six digs.
 
*Yale got 23 digs from All-Ivy hitter Audrey Leak, who hit .647 on the night, while Mila Yarich added 10 kills. Carly Diehl dished out 42 assists, while Maile Somera had 14 digs and Mila Yarich added 12. Gigi Barr and Betsy Goodenow had three block assists each.
 
How It Happened
The first set was certainly the best from a Penn perspective, as the Quakers held six leads and were tied with the Bulldogs 15 times. Yale's lead was 16-13 when a Tennyson kill set Penn off on a four-point run, Risch putting down two kills. The Bulldogs scored twice, both points answered by the Red and Blue, and then the teams traded points until Claire Deller put down a kill and followed that up with a service ace to put Penn up, 23-21. That forced a Yale timeout, and out of the stoppage the Bulldogs got kills from Goodenow and Barr and—after a Penn timeout—a service ace from Goodenow. That gave Yale set point, but a Sanger kill made it 24-24. Yale got a second set point, only to be denied by Rittenberg, then a third set point that was equaled by Risch. At that point, Yale went to Leak who put down a pair of kills to end the set, 28-26. Risch had six kills in the set, hitting .429, while Sanger added five and Rittenberg put down three on four attacks (.750).
 
Yale appeared to learn its lesson. The Bulldogs fed Leak throughout the second set and the senior met the challenge, putting down a staggering 12 kills and hitting a perfect 1.000. That said, Yale's lead was just 7-5 after a Rittenberg kill. At that point, the Bulldogs went on a nine-point run that included four straight kills from Leak. Penn's offense was nonexistent, the Quakers' next three points coming on Yale errors. Finally Tennyson recorded a kill, but by then the score was 22-9 and it ended 25-11. Rittenberg led the Red and Blue with four kills on five attacks (.800).
 
Penn went in front early after the break, 5-3, but a pair of three-point Yale runs turned the tables and put the Bulldogs up, 12-7. That forced a Penn timeout, and out of the break the Quakers got kills from Tennyson and Feyi Ogunlari to make it 13-9. However, Yale scored the next three points to get some separation, forcing another Quakers timeout. The closest Penn got after the stoppage was six points on three occasions, the last at 24-18 on an Anna Shohfi service ace. However, a Leak kill (of course) completed the Yale sweep. Tennyson was perfect on attack in the set, with three kills on three attacks, while Risch put down two kills without an error.
 
Up Next
Penn is at Brown tomorrow night at 5 p.m.; the Bears fell to 0-2 in Ivy League play with a 3-1 loss to Princeton Friday night, after taking Yale to five sets (losing the fifth, 18-16) last weekend in New Haven.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.