PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team got an important Ivy League weekend off to a great start on Friday night, rolling past Columbia with a 3-0 victory.
Set scores were 25-7, 25-23, 25-10.
Penn improved to 11-9 overall and moved into a three-way tie for fourth place in the Ivy League standings at 5-6, along with Harvard and Brown. Columbia fell to 4-16 overall and 1-10 in Ivy play.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn hit .386 as a team on Friday night (37K-10E-70A).
*Penn's first-set, 25-7 win was the Quakers' most lopsided set win since college volleyball went to 25-point sets in 2008. The previous best was 25-9 and it happened five times, most recently in back-to-back sets in a sweep of Delaware State on September 12, 2015.
*Freshman
Adell Murray had another impressive outing, putting down a match-high 10 kills and hitting .692 (10K-1E-13A). She also had three block assists. In two matches against Columbia this season, Murray hit .688 (23K-1E-32A).
*Sophomore
Bella Rittenberg also had a solid night on offense, with seven kills on nine attacks and just one error (.667).
*Freshman
Ellie Siskin put down eight kills, while sophomore
Zada Sanger had six.
*Sophomore
Elsa McDermott led Penn with six digs.
*Freshman
Jenniya Lane led the net defense with four block assists.
*Freshman setter
Emery Moore had 28 assists across the three sets, joined Murray with three block assists, and had three digs. She also recorded two kills on four attacks.
How It Happened
Penn wasted no time establishing itself on Friday night. After a Columbia block gave the Lions the first point of the night, Penn got kills from three different players and a block from Murray and Siskin on the way to a 6-1 lead that forced the Lions into a timeout. No matter. The Lions scored a second point, only for Penn to reel off five more in a row to make it 11-2 and force another Columbia stoppage. The Quakers cruised from there, a Siskin kill (her fifth of the set) putting a merciful end to what was a one-sided affair. Murray also had five kills, hitting a perfect 1.000, while Rittenberg was perfect in putting down three kills.
The second set was far closer. Penn used a five-point run to turn a 6-6 tie into an 11-6 lead, but the Lions recovered and were back level by 13-13. Columbia took a 15-14 lead—its first lead since 1-0 in Set 1—and at 17-17 the Lions got a kill from Hailee Watts and a block from Harper Justema and Clara Yu to go in front, 19-17. That forced Penn head coach
Meredith Schamun to burn a timeout, and out of the break Murray put down a kill to get the Red and Blue back within one. Penn eventually tied it up at 20-20, then the teams traded the next four points to 22-22. At that point, Rittenberg put down a pair of kills to give the Quakers set point. She had an attack error on the next point, but Siskin again finished things off to give Penn the 2-0 lead in sets, 25-23. Murray led the way with four kills in the set.
The loss seemed to take the wind out of Columbia's sails. Penn scored the first five points of the third set, the first two coming off Siskin aces and the next two from blocks which forced a Columbia timeout. The killer was a six-point Quakers run that turned a 9-5 set into a double-digit margin and allowed the Red and Blue to substitute liberally down the stretch. Freshman
Hailey Hilsabeck put down two kills and junior captain
Jalen Tennyson had the winning kill.
Up Next
Penn will close out the home portion of its 2024 schedule tomorrow night, hosting Cornell—which is 6-5 in Ivy play after a 3-0 loss at Princeton Friday—at 5 p.m. Prior to first serve, the Quakers will honor graduating seniors
Kat Alexander,
Ella Green and
Kaya Johnson.
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
#FightOnPenn
