PHILADELPHIA – Coming off a bye weekend, the University of Pennsylvania volleyball team starts the back half of the Ivy League schedule as it makes a push for a bid into the four-team Ivy League Tournament. The Quakers will spend this weekend in New England, traveling to Brown for a Friday match before meeting Ivy League leader Yale on Saturday night.
 
Game 18 – PENN (10-7, 4-4 Ivy League) at BROWN (6-12, 3-5)
Friday, Nov. 1 | 6 p.m. | Providence, R.I.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats

Game 19 – PENN at YALE (13-3, 8-0)
Saturday, Nov. 2 | 6 p.m. | New Haven, Conn.
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 Ivy League Standings
Penn is currently tied for fourth place with Harvard, both at 4-4. Cornell is a game ahead, at 5-3, while Brown is a game behind at 3-5. The Crimson and Big Red meet in Ithaca on Friday night.
 
The Series with Brown
The Bears had won six in a row and eight of the last nine matchups, dating back to 2018, before the Quakers swept them on October 5 at The Palestra. In that match, Bella Rittenberg had nine kills and 19 digs while Ellie Siskin also had nine digs (hitting .304) and seven digs.
 
The Series with Yale
The Bulldogs have dominated this series for more than a decade now, winning the last ten in a row, 16 of the last 17, and 22 of the last 24. That includes a 3-1 win at The Palestra on October 4. Penn's last win came on October 28, 2017, a 3-2 decision at The Palestra, and the Quakers' last victory in New Haven was November 21, 2010—a 3-2 win in an Ivy League playoff that put the Red and Blue in the NCAA Championship field.
 
Penn in the Ivy League Stats (all)
HITTING PCT: Adell Murray, seventh (.336)
KILLS/SET: Zada Sanger, seventh (3.24)
ASSISTS/SET: Emery Moore, fifth (8.58)
ACES/SET: Jenniya Lane, fourth (0.37); Ellie Siskin, eighth (0.34); Elsa McDermott, tenth (0.33)
DIGS/SET: Abigail Reid, seventh (2.73); Emery Moore, tenth (2.47)
POINTS/SET: Zada Sanger, eighth (3.64)
 
*As a team, Penn leads that Ivies in aces/set (1.73) and is third in hitting percentage (.248), assists/set (11.86), and digs/set (14.17).
 
Penn in the Ivy League Stats (conference only)
KILLS/SET: Zada Sanger, sixth (3.20); Ellie Siskin, ninth (2.97)
ASSISTS/SET: Emery Moore, fourth (9.73)
ACES/SET: Ellie Siskin, third (0.47); Elsa McDermott, seventh (0.42); Jenniya Lane, tenth (0.40)
DIGS/SET: Abigail Reid, seventh (2.93); Emery Moore, ninth (2.80)
POINTS/SET: Zada Sanger, eighth (3.57)
 
*As a team, Penn is second in digs/set (14.77) and aces/set (1.97).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its fourth season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*At 10-7 overall and 4-4 in Ivy League play, Penn has already more than doubled its win total for all of last season (4) and doubled its conference win total from last season (2) despite being just past the midpoint of the Ivy schedule.
 
*Interesting note: Penn has split all four Ivy League weekends it has played. The Quakers won on Friday then lost on Saturday in its home-and-home with Princeton to start league play. Since then, the Red and Blue has lost on Friday and won on Saturday three straight times.
 
*Some historic wins: Penn's 3-1 win at Princeton on September 27 was the Quakers' first over the Tigers since 2015. (In that match, Penn dropped the first set but won the next three.) One week later, the Quakers downed Brown 3-0 for their first win over the Bears since 2019.
 
*Penn players have earned the Ivy League Rookie of the Week honor three times already this season; Adell Murray was the Ivy League Rookie of the Week in Week 1 and setter Emery Moore was the recipient on consecutive weeks (September 23 and 30).
 
*Sophomore Zada Sanger leads the attack; she has 201 kills on the season and has reached double digits in that category 11 times this season including six in Ivy play and each of the last three matches (16 vs. Harvard, 12 at Cornell, 14 in three sets at Columbia). Of particular note, Sanger had 22 kills in Penn's four-set win over Rhode Island on September 22, the most by a Penn player since Madison Risch opened the 2022 season with 22 in a four-setter with Niagara.
 
*Sophomore Bella Rittenberg is another integral piece on attack; the left-hander is second on the team with 164 kills and is hitting .284 for the season. She has nine games with a double-figure kill total (reaching nine in three other matches) and three double-doubles.
 
*Freshman Ellie Siskin has come to life in Ivy play, with five double figure kill performances including each of the last four matches (10 vs. Dartmouth, 16 vs. Harvard, 18 at Cornell, 10 at Columbia). She also had 11 digs against the Crimson for her third double-double this season and has served up multiple aces in four Ivy matches including a season-high four in the opener at Princeton.
 
*Moore has settled in as Penn's setter in recent weeks, with 385 assists over the last ten matches (10.13 a/s). She also has 106 digs and 13 blocks (1s/12a) over that span—she had 21 digs vs. Harvard and 14 at Cornell—and over the last 11 matches has proven cagey on attack with 41 kills and just seven errors.
 
*In the middle, Murray has four matches with a double-figure kill total—most recently when she put down 13 in just three sets at Columbia two weeks ago—and four more with nine. The freshman also leads the Quakers with 40 blocks (5s/35a) and is hitting a team-best .336.
 
*Yet another freshman, Jenna Garner, has become a reliable presence on the back line—she led Penn with 16 digs in the first meeting with the Bulldogs—but can also put them down as she has 52 kills on the season.
 
*Freshman Jenniya Lane was inserted into the lineup at NJIT, just ahead of Ivy play, and has found her form on net defense. She had five block assists against Harvard and four blocks (1s/3a) two weeks ago in the three-set win at Columbia. Lane also has served up five aces in two different Ivy matches, at Princeton and against Brown, and been opportunistic on offense the last three matches with 11 kills and just one error on 24 attacks (.417 hitting percentage).
 
*Junior Abigail Reid has led Penn in digs each of the last two seasons and is second on the team so far this season, with 150. (Moore has 158.) Reid had 414 as a freshman (when she received honorable mention All-Ivy recognition) and 246 last season (when she missed much of the non-conference season due to injury). Reid was second among Ivy players in digs/set last year in conference play (4.49), and in 2022 she averaged 4.50 digs/set which was second among Ivy Leaguers and third among freshmen nationally.
 
*Rittenberg and Murray were named to the all-tournament team at both tournaments that Penn played in this season, the Red Flash Classic hosted by Saint Francis (Pa.) in Week 1 and the Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square Penn Invitational at The Palestra in Week 2.
 
*When Murray was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week in Week 1, she was the first Penn player to earn an Ivy weekly honor since Autumn Leak and Sydney Ormiston swept the Player and Rookie awards in Week 1 of the 2021 season.
 
*In part, Murray earned the honor because she put down 20 kills in Penn's 3-2 reverse sweep of Siena. In doing so, she was the first Penn player with 20 kills in a match in almost exactly a year. The freshman also had six blocks in that win (1s/5a).
 
*Juniors Jalen Tennyson and Anna Shohfi and sophomore Lauren Van Wie are this year's captains.
 
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