PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team rebounded from last night's loss to Dartmouth with a 3-2 win over Harvard Saturday night at The Palestra.
Set scores in Saturday's back-and-forth tilt were 25-18, 16-25, 25-15, 24-26, 15-13.
Penn improved to 9-6 overall and got back level in Ivy League play at 3-3, while Harvard fell to 8-6 overall and 3-2 in Ivy play.
Quaker Notemeal
*Sophomore
Zada Sanger and freshman
Ellie Siskin both put down 16 kills on Saturday night, with Sanger hitting .343 and Siskin adding 11 digs for her third double-double this season.
*Sophomore
Bella Rittenberg also had a double-double on Saturday night, with 12 kills and 10 digs. She also had a team-high six block assists, two service aces, and two assists.
*Freshman
Adell Murray had nine kills and five block assists, with four of them coming in the decisive fifth set.
*Sophomore
Elsa McDermott was impactful off the bench, with a match-high five service aces and 10 digs.
*Freshman
Jenniya Lane had four kills (hitting .375) and five block assists and also served up an ace.
*Freshman setter
Emery Moore had 46 assists, a team-leading 21 digs and a block assist.
*Harvard got 18 kills from Brynne Faltinsky, 14 from Ryleigh Patterson, and 11 from Peyton Hollis while Rocky Aguirre dished out 46 assists. Defensively, Lindsey Zhang led all players with 22 digs.
How It Happened
Penn used a four-point run early in Saturday's first set, then extended it to six out of seven to turn a 3-3 tie into a 9-4 lead. The Quakers essentially doubled up the Crimson the rest of the way, leading by as much as nine (19-10) on the way to the relatively easy win. Siskin had six kills without an error on 10 attacks (.600) while Rittenberg and Lane had three kills each.
The second set saw the teams tie 11 times to 12-12, essentially trading the first 24 points. However, the Crimson got a block from Faltinsky and Taylor Larkin to go in front and that was the start of a 6-1 Harvard run that made the score 18-13 and forced a Penn timeout. Rittenberg put down a kill out of the stoppage, only for Harvard to rip off the next three points to put this one out of reach. Rittenberg and Sanger had three kills each, with Sanger hitting .429.
Penn used another fast start in the third set, a four-point run turning a 4-3 lead into an 8-3 advantage. The Quakers essentially traded points for most of the set after that, and at 19-14 they stepped on the gas with a 6-1 run that put this one to bed. Sanger had five kills and hit .444 in the set, while McDermott served up three aces (all of them in a row) and Murray put down four kills (.429).
The fourth set was a tight one, the teams tying 13 times and neither team holding a lead larger than three points after 9-9. That came at 16-13, after Harvard won three points in a row to break a 13-13 tie, but Penn came back with the next three as Murray put down two kills, sandwiching them around a block she shared with Sanger. The teams would trade every point to 20-20 and then Harvard would finally win back-to-back points to go up 22-20. The teams traded the next two points, but then the Quakers got kills from Siskin and Murray to tie things at 23-23. On the following point, a Harvard attack was ruled out and the Crimson's challenge that a Penn player touched it was unsuccessful. That gave the Red and Blue match point, but Faltinsky put down a kill and that was a start of a three-point Harvard run that ended when Alexandra Farquhar and Bennett Trubey blocked a Penn attack for the 26-24 set win. Sanger had five kills, hitting .364, while Murray and Siskin put down three each.
Harvard continued the momentum early in the decisive fifth set, scoring five points in a row to turn a 4-3 deficit into an 8-4 lead. The switch of benches brought a reversal of fortune, however, as Siskin put down a pair of kills on either side of three straight blocks that involved Murray (two with Rittenberg, one with Siskin). That gave Penn a 9-8 lead, and then a Rittenberg kill made it 10-8. Harvard scored the next point on a Hollis kill, but then Rittenberg had another kill and that was followed by a Crimson error that made the score 12-9 and brought about a Harvard timeout. At that point Penn's run was 8-1. Out of the stoppage, a Penn service error was followed by a Harvard kill to once again make it a one-point affair, at 12-11, but a Siskin kill was followed by yet another block, this time Murray and Moore stuffing the Crimson attack. That set up the Red and Blue with three match points, but Harvard fought off two of them with kills by Trubey and Faltinsky. Penn called timeout, and on the next service Moore fed Sanger who put it down to end the match.
Up Next
After playing its last five Ivy League matches at home, Penn is on the road for its next four and six of its last eight conference games. That rugged stretch starts next weekend when the Quakers hit the Empire State to face Cornell (Friday at 7 p.m.) and Columbia (Saturday at 6 p.m.) for the first time this season.
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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