PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team enters the final weekend of conference play still holding on to Ivy League Tournament hopes. The Quakers certainly need a win on Friday, and a sweep is probably also necessary if they want to be one of the four teams left standing a week from now in the Ancient Eight's postseason event.
 
Game 22 – PENN (11-10, 5-7 Ivy League) at HARVARD (10-11, 5-7)
Friday, Nov. 15 | 7 p.m. | Cambridge, Mass.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Game 23 – PENN at DARTMOUTH (10-12, 3-9)
Saturday, Nov. 16 | 4 p.m. | Hanover, N.H.
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
At 5-7, Penn is tied with Harvard for fifth place, a game behind Brown (6-6). So Friday's meeting with the Crimson is essentially a knockout match, as the loser will most likely be eliminated from ILT consideration. Yale (11-1) and Princeton (10-2) have already clinched spots in the tournament, while third-place Cornell (7-5) would need a lot of things to go wrong not to get in. The Big Red and Bears meet Friday in Ithaca—a match that could have huge ramifications for the Quakers if they beat Harvard—and then on Saturday Brown is at Columbia (1-11) while Cornell is at Yale.
 
The Series with Harvard
After being swept by the Crimson each of the last two seasons, including 3-0 sweeps in both of last year's meetings, Penn took a 3-2 decision on October 12 at The Palestra. Zada Sanger and Ellie Siskin had 16 kills each for the Red and Blue, with Sanger hitting .343 in the match, and Siskin (16K/11D) and Bella Rittenberg (12K/10D) both had double-doubles. These teams split the season series in 2019 and 2021, the road team winning both times in 2021 and the home team winning each time in 2019.
 
The Series with Dartmouth
The Big Green has beaten the Quakers six times in a row, including a 3-0 decision at The Palestra on October 11. Siskin led the Red and Blue with 10 kills. Prior to this current Dartmouth streak, the Quakers had won four in a row and a staggering 26 of the last 28.
 
Penn in the Ivy League Stats (all)
HITTING PCT: Adell Murray, fifth (.339); Bella Rittenberg, ninth (.291)
KILLS/SET: Zada Sanger, seventh (3.10)
ASSISTS/SET: Emery Moore, sixth (8.63)
ACES/SET: Jenniya Lane, fourth (0.42); Ellie Siskin, seventh (0.36); Anna Shohfi, tenth (0.31)
DIGS/SET: Abigail Reid, eighth (2.63)
POINTS/SET: Zada Sanger, eighth (3.47)
 
*As a team, Penn leads the league in aces/set (1.83) and is third in hitting percentage (.242) and digs/set (14.09).
 
Penn in the Ivy League Stats (conference only)
HITTING PCT: Adell Murray, ninth (.310)
KILLS/SET: Zada Sanger, eighth (2.95)
ASSISTS/SET: Emery Moore, fifth (9.45)
ACES/SET: Jenniya Lane and Ellie Siskin, t-4th (0.45); Elsa McDermott, ninth (0.35)
DIGS/SET: Abigail Reid, seventh (2.71); Emery Moore, eighth (2.64)
POINTS/SET: Ellie Siskin, ninth (3.27)
 
*As a team, Penn is second behind Yale in aces/set (2.07), second behind Brown in digs/set (14.43), and third in hitting percentage (.233)
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its fourth season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*At 11-10 overall and 5-7 in Ivy League play, Penn has nearly tripled its win totals for all of last season (4) and in conference play (2) heading into this final weekend.
 
*Interesting note: Penn has split five of its six Ivy League weekends this season, the outlier being two weeks ago when the Quakers lost twice (at Brown and Yale). Two times the Red and Blue have won on Friday but lost on Saturday (including last weekend against Columbia then Cornell), and for three straight weekends in October (including the home weekend with D/H) they lost on Friday but rebounded to win on Saturday.
 
*Some historic wins: Penn won at Princeton on September 27, 3-1, the Quakers' first win 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 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 223 kills on the season and has reached double digits in that category 11 times this season—six of them in Ivy play, with the conference high being the 16 she put down a month ago against Harvard. 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 190 kills and is hitting .291 for the season. She has nine games with a double-figure kill total (reaching nine in three other matches) and three double-doubles.
 
*In the middle, Murray has six matches with a double-figure kill total—including 10 in both of last weekend's matches, against the Lions and Big Red—and four more with nine. The freshman also leads the Quakers with 50 blocks (5s/45a) and is hitting a team-best .339 after she hit a combined .486 last weekend (20K-2E-37A).
 
*Freshman Ellie Siskin has come to life in Ivy play, with six double figure kill totals. She also has three double-doubles this season and has served up multiple aces in six Ivy matches including a season-high four in the opener at Princeton.
 
*Moore has settled in as Penn's setter since just prior to Ivy play, with 510 assists over the last 14 matches (9.80 a/s). She also has 138 digs and 21 blocks (2s/19a) over that span—she had 21 digs vs. Harvard and 14 at Cornell—and over the last 13 matches has proven cagey on attack with 51 kills and just eight errors.
 
*Yet another freshman, Jenna Garner, has become a reliable presence on the back line—she has 127 digs this season—but can also put them down as she has 67 kills on the season. Garner missed the home weekend with Dartmouth/Harvard due to illness.
 
*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 a season-high five block assists in the win over Harvard last month. Lane also has served up five aces in two different Ivy matches, at Princeton and against Brown, and been opportunistic on offense the last five matches with 25 kills and just two errors on 49 attacks (.469 hitting percentage). Two weeks ago, she hit .700 against league-leading Yale (7K-0E-10A).
 
*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 163. (Moore has 190.) 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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