CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team used a massive effort on Friday night, coming back from a 2-0 deficit in sets to pull out a 3-2 win over Harvard at the Malkin Athletic Center.
 
The stunning result was the Quakers' first reverse sweep in Ivy League play since October 19, 2012 at Princeton.
 
Penn is now 12-10 and has tripled its win total from a year ago. More importantly, the win kept the Red and Blue's flickering Ivy League Tournament hopes alive, improving them to 6-7 in league play which puts them one game behind Brown—a 3-2 winner at Cornell on Friday night—for the fourth and final tournament spot. Penn's only path into the postseason is with a win tomorrow at Dartmouth and a Brown loss at 1-12 Columbia.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Sophomore Zada Sanger led the attack on Friday night, putting down 17 kills with just two errors and hitting .417. She also had a block solo.
 
*Freshman Adell Murray had yet another impressive hitting night, with 15 kills and a .455 hitting percentage, and put back two block assists.
 
*Sophomore Bella Rittenberg was a third Penn player with a double-figure kill total, with 11, and she led the Quakers with three block assists.
 
*Freshman Ellie Siskin nearly had a double-double, with eight kills and 10 digs.
 
*Junior Abigail Reid led the Quakers with 11 digs while senior Kat Alexander had nine.
 
*Freshman setter Emery Moore dished off 52 assists, put down two kills and picked up five digs. Most importantly, her fourth block solo of the season was the play that ended this improbable victory.
 
*Harvard (10-12, 5-8) got 14 kills from Ryleigh Patterson and 13 from Brynne Faltinsky, who also had four blocks (2s/2a). Corinne Furey had nine kills, two block solos and four block assists and Peyton Hollis added nine kills and two block solos.
 
How It Happened
Harvard led wire-to-wire in Friday's first set, going up by four early and never looking back. Penn got as close as 9-8, on a Rittenberg kill, but the Crimson responded with five of the next six points which forced a Quakers timeout. Again Penn tried to get level, getting within 15-13, but again Harvard made the plays to keep the Red and Blue at bay with a 10-3 run to win going away. Murray was perfect on three attacks in the set.
 
The Crimson scored the first four points of the second set but the Quakers came back to 5-5. Harvard scored the next three points, though, and led the rest of the way as the Cantabs got up by five at 13-8 and essentially kept that margin the rest of the way. Sanger had six kills on 11 attacks in the set, hitting .545.
 
The teams tied at every score to 5-5 in the third set, at which point Penn got consecutive kills from Rittenberg, Murray and Siskin to go in front by three. It was still 14-10 when the Quakers put the hammer down, scoring five straight points around a Harvard timeout. Sanger, Rittenberg and Siskin all had kills in the run, while Reid served up an ace and Rittenberg joined Jenniya Lane in sending back a block. That made the score 19-10 and the Quakers cruised from there. Murray again was perfect, this time on four attacks, while Sanger had four kills on seven attacks (.571) and Rittenberg had four kills (hitting .500) and two block assists with Lane.
 
Harvard got out fast in the fourth set, up 5-2, but Penn was back level by 6-6 and then used a four-point run to go in front 10-7 and force a Crimson timeout. A Faltinsky kill out of the stoppage was answered by five straight Penn points, three of them off Murray kills and a fourth from an Anna Shohfi ace. Harvard halved an 18-12 lead with a 4-1 run, forcing a Penn timeout at 19-16, but the Quakers were able to essentially trade points the rest of the way, Murray's fifth kill in the set giving them the 25-21 win. Siskin hit .667 with four kills.
 
Penn had all the momentum at that point and started the fifth set with a Sanger kill and block solo for the first two points. That eventually grew to 5-1, and another Sanger kill made it 6-2 and forced a Harvard timeout (which was followed by another Reid ace). Rittenberg put down a kill to make the score 9-4, then combined with Murray on a block that brought another Crimson timeout. The largest lead was 12-5, and at 12-7 Murray and Siskin put back a block, Murray put down one final kill, and then Moore came up with her block solo to touch off a wild on-court celebration.
 
Up Next
Penn will serve it up with the Big Green tomorrow at 4 p.m.; if the Quakers win, they will be scoreboard watching on the bus ride home as Brown and Columbia are scheduled for first serve at 6 p.m. in New York City.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.