PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team closes out the non-conference of its 2024 schedule on Sunday, hosting the University of Rhode Island in a Sunday matinee. The Rams are in town for Villanova's Wildcat Invitational on Friday and Saturday and will stay in Philly an extra night to take on the Quakers at The Palestra.
 
Game 9 – PENN (5-3) vs. RHODE ISLAND (4-6)
Sunday, Sept. 22 | 1 p.m. | The Palestra
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Ivy League on ESPN
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The Series With URI
The Quakers and Rams are meeting for the eighth time overall but the first time since 2011—which, coincidentally, was also the only other time they met in The Palestra—and just the second time since 1983. Penn swept that 2011 matchup, 3-0, and thus holds a 4-3 lead in the series. URI's last win came on October 29, 1983, a 3-1 decision in North Kingston, R.I. that was the third meeting that season and remains the only one played on URI's campus. The first five matchups were neutral-site affairs.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its fourth season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*Penn beat NJIT on Tuesday night, 3-1, in the process surpassing its win total for all of last season.
 
*Two Penn players finished Tuesday night with a double-double, as sophomore Bella Rittenberg led all players with 13 kills and added a season-high 11 digs while freshman Ellie Siskin posted a season best in kills (11) and had 10 digs, two block assists and two service aces.
 
*Freshman Jenniya Lane saw her first collegiate action—getting the start in the middle, actually—and ended the night with five kills (.300 hitting percentage), two digs, two block solos and three block assists.
 
*Last weekend, Penn went 2-1 at its own Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square Penn Invitational, sweeping Manhattan on Friday and Le Moyne on Saturday morning but falling to Morgan State in the tournament finale on Saturday night.
 
*Rittenberg and freshman Adell Murray were named to the all-tournament team following the event, the second straight week that the 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 leads Penn with 84 kills this season and is hitting .377. Sophomore Zada Sanger is right behind her, with 83 kills, while Murray has 70 and is hitting .390 so far this season.
 
*Murray also leads Penn with 19 blocks, followed by Sanger (17) and junior Jalen Tennyson (16).
 
*Freshman setter Emery Moore leads the Quakers with 208 assists and is second with 60 digs which is behind only junior libero Abigail Reid (61).
 
*Junior Anna Shohfi has also gotten reps at setter, with 67 assists, and leads Penn with eight service aces. Penn's last six points on Tuesday night came on her serve and she closed out the match with two aces.
 
*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.
 
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