PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team is home for one final weekend of Ivy League play, hosting Columbia and Cornell at The Palestra.
 
Game 20 – PENN (10-9, 4-6 Ivy League) vs. COLUMBIA (4-15, 1-9)
Friday, Nov. 8 | 7 p.m. | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Game 21 – PENN vs. CORNELL (12-7, 6-4)
Saturday, Nov. 9 | 5 p.m. | The Palestra
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+!
 
Thank You, Seniors!
Prior to Saturday night's match against the Big Red, head coach Meredith Schamun and the 2024 team will honor their graduating seniors: Kat Alexander, Ella Green, and Kaya Johnson.
 
The Ivy League Standings
At 4-6, Penn enters these final two Ivy League weekends (four matches in total) one game out of fourth place and two out of third. A reminder that for the second year, the top four teams will compete in the Ivy League Tournament on the top seed's home court. While Penn (4-6) and Princeton (8-2) host Columbia (1-9) and Cornell (4-6), Harvard (5-5) and Dartmouth (3-7) are at Brown (4-6) and Yale (9-1) on Friday and Saturday.
 
The Series with Columbia
This has been a back-and-forth rivalry since the return to play post-pandemic. Penn has won the last three meetings, taking a 3-0 decision three weeks ago after sweeping last year's matches, 3-1 at The Palestra and 3-0 in New York City. Columbia swept in 2022, both by 3-1 scores. In the Quakers' 3-0 win on October 19, Zada Sanger had 14 kills and hit .520 while Adell Murray put down 13 and hit a staggering .684. Ellie Siskin nearly had a double-double (10 kills, 8 digs).
 
The Series with Cornell
The Big Red swept last season's meetings, taking a 3-1 decision at The Palestra and then sweeping the Quakers in Ithaca. Three weeks ago, Cornell took a 3-1 decision, winning the last two sets 27-25 and 25-22 after the teams split the first two. Siskin had 18 kills and seven digs while Sanger put down 12. Penn and Cornell split in both 2021 and 2022 with the home team winning all four meetings.
 
Penn in the Ivy League Stats (all)
HITTING PCT: Adell Murray, seventh (.324); Bella Rittenberg, tenth (.283)
KILLS/SET: Zada Sanger, seventh (3.21)
ASSISTS/SET: Emery Moore, fifth (8.61)
ACES/SET: Jenniya Lane, seventh (0.36); Ellie Siskin, tenth (0.33)
DIGS/SET: Abigail Reid, eighth (2.63); Emery Moore, ninth (2.52)
POINTS/SET: Zada Sanger, eighth (3.59)
 
*As a team, Penn is second in digs/set (14.44) and third in hitting percentage (.242) and aces/set (1.75).
 
Penn in the Ivy League Stats (conference only)
KILLS/SET: Zada Sanger, seventh (3.15); Ellie Siskin, tenth (2.84)
ASSISTS/SET: Emery Moore, fourth (9.57)
ACES/SET: Ellie Siskin, sixth (0.43); Elsa McDermott, ninth (0.39); Jenniya Lane, tenth (0.38)
DIGS/SET: Emery Moore, seventh (2.84); Abigail Reid, ninth (2.71)
POINTS/SET: Ellie Siskin, ninth (3.43)
 
*As a team, Penn is second to Brown in digs/set (15.16), second to Yale in aces/set (1.95), and third behind Princeton and Yale in hitting percentage (.231).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its fourth season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*At 10-9 overall and 4-6 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) with four matches still to go.
 
*Interesting note: Penn split the first four Ivy League weekends it played, before losing twice last weekend at Brown and Yale. The Quakers won on Friday then lost on Saturday in its home-and-home with Princeton to start league play. The Red and Blue then lost on Friday and won on Saturday three straight times.
 
*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 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 212 kills on the season and has reached double digits in that category 11 times this season—six of them in Ivy play—including 12 at Cornell and 14 in the three-setter at Columbia three weeks ago. 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 177 kills and is hitting .283 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 six double figure kill totals including 18 three weeks ago at Cornell and 10 at Columbia. She also has three double-double this season and has served up multiple aces in five Ivy matches including a season-high four in the opener at Princeton.
 
*Moore has settled in as Penn's setter in recent weeks, with 448 assists over the last 12 matches (9.96 a/s). She also has 127 digs and 17 blocks (2s/15a) 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 45 kills and just eight 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 three weeks ago—and four more with nine. The freshman also leads the Quakers with 42 blocks (5s/37a) and is hitting a team-best .324.
 
*Yet another freshman, Jenna Garner, has become a reliable presence on the back line—she had 10 digs in the first meeting with the Big Red—but can also put them down as she has 64 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 four blocks (1s/3a) three 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 five matches with 23 kills and just two errors on 44 attacks (.477 hitting percentage). Last Saturday, 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 179.) 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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