PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team has two final non-conference matches before getting into Ivy League play. The first of those comes on Tuesday night in the Garden State, as the Quakers serve it up against NJIT in a midweek matchup.
 
Game 8 – PENN (4-3) at NJIT (4-8)
Tuesday, Sept. 17 | 6 p.m. | Newark, N.J.
Watch Live on AETV | Live Stats 
 
The Series With NJIT
*The Quakers and Highlanders have played each other twice before, in 2015 and last year at the Delaware State Invitational. Penn has won both matchups, 3-0 in 2015 and 3-1 last year in Dover, Del.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its fourth season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*Penn went 2-1 at its own Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square Penn Invitational last weekend, sweeping Manhattan on Friday and Le Moyne on Saturday morning but falling to Morgan State in the tournament finale on Saturday night.
 
*Sophomore Bella Rittenberg and freshman Adell Murray were named to the all-tournament team following the event, the second straight week that that duo earned all-tournament honors. They also got them Week 1 at the Red Flash Classic hosted by Saint Francis (Pa.).
 
*Rittenberg had 23 kills across Penn's three matches (9 sets), committing just three errors on 43 attacks for a .465 hitting percentage. She also had three block assists and six digs.
 
*Rittenberg reached double figures in kills in each of Penn's first five matches this season, before settling for seven against Le Moyne and six vs. Morgan State.
 
*Murray, meanwhile, had 21 kills over the weekend and hit .375 for the weekend (21K-6E-43A). She also had three blocks (1s/2a), four digs and two service aces.
 
*Last Monday, Murray was named the first Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the 2024 season following her play at Saint Francis. 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).
 
*Rittenberg (71) and Murray (62) are second and third on the team in kills, behind sophomore Zada Sanger who has 74 with four double-figure games. Significant dropoff after that to freshmen Jenna Garner (33) and Ellie Siskin (23) and junior Feyi Ogunlari (22).
 
*Freshman Emery Moore and junior Anna Shohfi have split duties at setter this season; Moore has a team-high 164 assists while Shohfi has 66.
 
*Penn has rotated the libero position a bit this season, although junior Abigail Reid played most of the reps over the weekend at the Penn Invitational. She leads the team with 55 digs, followed closely by Moore (52).
 
*The other player to wear the libero jersey has been senior Kat Alexander; she has 30 digs which is behind not just Reid and Moore but also Siskin (39), Garner (38) and Shohfi (32).
 
*Junior Jalen Tennyson leads Penn with 16 blocks (2s/14a); she had eight (2s/6a) in the three-set win over Le Moyne, five of which came in a dominating first set.
 
*Sanger (15), Murray (14), senior Kaya Johnson (14), and Ogunlari (12) also have reached double figures in blocks while Rittenberg has nine block assists so far this season.
 
*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.