PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team makes its home debut this weekend, hosting the Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square Penn Invitational on Friday and Saturday at The Palestra. The Quakers will entertain Le Moyne, Manhattan and Morgan State across three matches on Friday and three more on Saturday.
 
All three of Penn's matches in the Invitational will air on ESPN+.
 
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday, Sept. 13
  Match 1 | Le Moyne vs. Manhattan | 1 p.m. | Live Stats
  Match 2 | Morgan State vs. Le Moyne | 4 p.m. | Live Stats
  Match 3 | Penn vs. Manhattan | 7 p.m. | Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 14
  Match 4 | Penn vs. Le Moyne | 11 a.m. | Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
  Match 5 | Manhattan vs. Morgan State | 2 p.m. | Live Stats
  Match 6 | Penn vs. Morgan State | 5 p.m. | Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Penn vs. The Field
*The Quakers have met Friday's opponent, Manhattan, five times previously but not since 2003 (a 3-1 Penn win at the Villanova Invitational). Penn holds a 3-2 lead in the series, and this is the Jaspers' second visit to the Penn Invitational with the other coming in 2002. In that event, Manhattan beat Penn, 3-1.
 
*The Quakers' meeting Saturday with Le Moyne will be its first against the Dolphins.
 
*The Quakers' meeting Saturday with Morgan State will be its first against the Bears.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its fourth season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*Penn went 2-1 at the Red Flash Classic last weekend, falling to the host Saint Francis 3-1 in Friday's season opener but rebounding with a 3-2 win over Siena and a 3-0 sweep of Mercyhurst on Saturday.
 
*Saturday was particularly satisfying because the Quakers pulled a reverse sweep on the Saints, falling behind 2-0 in sets before winning the last three for the victory. The Red and Blue then had to get right back on the court to face the Lakers, but showed little mercy with the sweep.
 
*Sophomore Bella Rittenberg and freshman Adell Murray were named to the all-tournament team following the event.
 
*On Monday, Murray was named the first Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the 2024 season; she is 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.
 
*Rittenberg finished the weekend with 34 kills, hitting double figures in that category in all three games. She hit .348 on the weekend and also had five block assists, eight digs and two service aces.
 
*Murray, meanwhile, hit .453 on the weekend (33K-4E-64A). She also finished with nine blocks (1s/8a), eight digs and two service aces.
 
*Of particular note, the freshman had 20 kills with just one error on 33 attacks in the five-set win over Siena as well as six blocks (1s/5a) and three digs. The 20 kills were the most by a Penn player in almost exactly a year.
 
*Rittenberg's best performance came in the sweep of Mercyhurst, when she had 13 kills and hit a staggering .688 (13K-2E-16A) to go with three block assists.
 
*Sophomore Zada Sanger led the team with 36 kills on the weekend, going for a team-high 16 in the opener against Saint Francis and 14 vs. the Saints.
 
*Freshman Emery Moore got most of the reps at setter and finished the weekend with 87 assists. Junior captain Anna Shohfi also played at setter and had 21 assists as well as a team-high four service aces.
 
*Senior Kaya Johnson ended the weekend with 12 block assists to lead the team in that category, including six in the sweep of Mercyhurst.
 
*Moore and fellow freshman Ellie Siskin led Penn with 32 and 30 digs on the weekend, respectively, followed by junior libero Abigail Reid who had 27 despite not playing against Mercyhurst. Senior Kat Alexander wore the libero jersey in that final match and had 10 digs.
 
*Penn was at Coppin State on Tuesday morning for the Eagles' "Education Day" and fell to the defending MEAC champions, 3-2. The Quakers lost the second and third sets, but rallied to win the fourth and then went toe-to-toe with their hosts in the deciding fifth set before falling, 16-14.
 
*Sanger finished the CSU match with a match-high 17 kills, while Rittenberg put down 14 kills with just two errors on 22 attacks, a .545 hitting percentage. Sanger and juniors Feyi Ogunlari and Jalen Tennyson had three block assists each, while Alexander led the Quakers with nine digs and Moore and Shohfi had 21 assists each in sharing the setter spot.
 
*The top six attackers from last season are back in uniform this year, led by Sanger (265 kills) who finished second among Ivy League player in kills per set (3.49). She is a Penn volleyball legacy—her mother, the former Nida Germanas, was a middle for the Quakers who lettered in the early 1990s.
 
*Rittenberg was second on the team in kills (149), third in digs (138), and led the Quakers in service aces (19).
 
*Juniors Claire Deller and Tennyson were third and fourth in kills last year, with 98 and 79 respectively, and led the Quakers in blocks (Deller with 30.0, Tennyson with 29.0). Deller also was second on the team with 17 service aces.
 
*Shohfi is the incumbent at setter, having played their regularly since she arrived on campus. She had 274 assists last season and was a threat as an attack, with 27 kills and a .284 percentage.
 
*Reid has led Penn in digs each of the last two seasons, with 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 player 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.
 
*Tennyson, Shohfi, and sophomore Lauren Van Wie will serve as this year's captains.
 
*Six freshmen have joined the roster this season: three outside hitters in Jenna Garner, Hailey Hilsabeck and Ellie Siskin; a right side in Jenniya Lane; Adell Murray in the middle; and Emery Moore at setter.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.