PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team jumps right into Ivy League play this weekend with a home-and-home doubleheader against its travel partner, Princeton. The Quakers and Tigers will meet on Old Nassau Friday night, then come to Philly for the return engagement at The Palestra on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
 
Game 10 – PENN (6-3) at PRINCETON (2-7)
Friday, Sept. 27 | 7 p.m. | Princeton, N.J.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Game 11 – PENN vs. PRINCETON
Saturday, Sept. 28 | 5:30 p.m. | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Game Program (PDF)
 
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+!
 
The Series with Princeton
The Quakers and Tigers are meeting for the 96th and 97th times this weekend, one of the longest-standing rivalries in all of Ivy League women's sports. Princeton has won the last 15 matchups dating back to the 2015 season, and Penn will be looking for its first win over the Tigers at The Palestra since 2013 on Saturday evening.
 
Penn in the Ivy League Stats
HITTING PCT: Adell Murray (.382) third, Bella Rittenberg (.376) fourth
KILLS/SET: Zada Sanger (3.28) seventh
ASSISTS/SET: Emery Moore (7.56) sixth
ACES/SET: Anna Shohfi (0.35) seventh
DIGS/SET: Abigail Reid (2.52) ninth
 
*As a team, Penn leads the league in hitting percentage (.255), is second in kills/set (12.94) and assists/set (11.82), and is third in digs/set (13.65).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is in its fourth season under head coach Meredith Schamun.
 
*At 6-3, Penn has already surpassed its win total for all of last season (4). The Quakers won twice last weekend and have won four of their last five games.
 
*Freshman setter Emery Moore was named co-Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Monday, with Cornell's Haley Clark. She is the second different Penn player to earn the honor this season; Adell Murray was the Ivy League Rookie of the Week in Week 1.
 
*Last Sunday, Penn defeated Rhode Island 3-1 at The Palestra. In that match, sophomore Zada Sanger put down 22 kills which was a career high and the most by a Quakers player since Madison Risch had 22 in the 2022 season opener against Niagara. Sanger hit .409 (22K-4E-44A).
 
*Sophomore Bella Rittenberg had her second double-double in as many matches with 12 kills and 11 digs, and she also led all players with four service aces. Rittenberg hit .360 (12K-3E-25A).
 
*Murray also had 12 kills against the Rams.
 
*In a 3-1 win at NJIT last Tuesday, two Penn players finished the night with a double-double, as 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. She then started against URI and had three kills and two blocks (1s/1a).
 
*Two weeks ago, 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 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 it Week 1 at the Red Flash Classic hosted by Saint Francis (Pa.).
 
*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).
 
*Sanger leads Penn with 105 kills this season. Rittenberg is not far behind her, with 96 kills (and a .375 hitting percentage) while Murray has 82 and is hitting .382 so far this season.
 
*Murray also leads Penn with 20 blocks (2s/18a), followed by Sanger with 17 (5s/12a) and junior Jalen Tennyson with 16 (2s/14a).
 
*Moore leads the Quakers with 257 assists and 74 digs, while junior Anna Shohfi is second in assists (68) and junior Abigail Reid is second in digs (68).
 
*Shohfi also leads Penn with nine service aces, and she ended the NJIT 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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