PHILADELPHIA – In the return match between these Ivy League travel partners, the University of Pennsylvania volleyball team dropped a 3-1 decision to Princeton Saturday night in a match that was played in Rockwell Gymnasium due to the extreme humidity that left the Palestra floor too slippery to play on.
 
Set scores were 24-26, 25-23, 25-21, 25-12.
 
The teams split this weekend's home-and-home series that started Ivy League play. The Quakers had a three-game win streak snapped and are now 7-4 overall while Princeton improved to 3-8.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn had another solid hitting night, with a .254 hitting percentage, but Princeton hit .349.
 
*Penn's two sophomore attackers, Zada Sanger and Bella Rittenberg, both had 15 kills on Saturday night. Rittenberg hit .440 on the night (15K-4E-25A) while Sanger finished at .289 (15K-4E-38A).
 
*Rittenberg also had two service aces and eight digs, falling just short of a double-double and behind junior libero Abigail Reid (12) and freshman setter Emery Moore (9) in the latter category.
 
*Moore also had 42 assists and six kills on 10 attacks without an error (.600).
 
*Freshman Adell Murray put down nine kills and had a team-leading three blocks (1s/2a).
 
*Freshman Ellie Siskin had eight kills on Saturday and added seven digs.
 
*Princeton was led by Kamryn Chaney who put down 24 kills and hit .368 on Saturday night. Shelby Fulton had 11 kills and hit .588, while Lucia Scalamandre (11 kills) and Sydney Draper (48 assists) led the Tigers with five block assists each.
 
How It Happened
After coming back from a first-set loss to win last night at Princeton, 3-1, the youthful Quakers again showed great fortitude against a veteran Tigers squad on Saturday at Rockwell.
 
Princeton jumped out early in the first set, going up 6-3, but Penn came back with eight of the next 10 points and used Sanger an Rittenberg kills to go in front 10-8. It was 13-13 when a Siskin kill started a four-point Red and Blue run on Rittenberg's serve that forced a Tigers timeout. That lead expanded to six, at 21-15, at which point the Tigers roared back with nine of the next 10 points as two Penn timeouts were unable to slow things down. Facing set point, however, the Quakers reeled off the next four points to pull out an improbable 26-24 win. A Sanger kill salvaged a set point, a Princeton attack error tied things, and then kills by Jenniya Lane and Rittenberg finished it off. Sanger had five kills in the set while Rittenberg put down four while hitting .500.
 
The second set was another taut affair, the teams tying 11 different times and absorbing six different lead changes. Kills by Sanger and Rittenberg gave Penn a 20-18 lead, but the Tigers came back with four of the next five points to go in front 22-21. Rittenberg tied it one final time, at 22-22, but kills by Princeton's Fulton and Jackie Onyechi gave the visitors two set points again. Rittenberg got one of them back, but a Valerie Nutakor kill gave the Tigers the 25-23 win and tied this match at 1-1. Rittenberg had seven kills and hit .750 while Sanger hit .571 with four kills on seven attacks without an error.
 
Princeton got out in front early in the third set, and Penn was playing catch-up the whole way. The Quakers got as close as one, at 13-12, but a three-point Tigers run put some separation between the teams again. Penn made it a two-point set with a Sanger kill making the score 21-19, but a service error and a Chaney kill again put Princeton up by four. The teams traded the next four points after that, another Nutakor kill sealing the set win. Sanger had six kills in the set, hitting .294, while Siskin had four kills and hit .600.
 
Princeton had all the answers in the fourth set. The Tigers used a 6-1 run to go up 9-3 and just kept extending things; by the time Scalamandre served up an ace, the score was 15-5 and Penn was calling its final timeout of the set. No matter. Princeton's first 13-point lead came at 21-8 and they essentially traded points the rest of the way in closing out the match.
 
Up Next
Penn will remain home each of the next two weekends for Ivy play, starting next Friday and Saturday when the Quakers host defending champion Yale (Friday at 7 p.m.) and Brown (Saturday at 5 p.m.).
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.