LORETTO, Pa. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team opened its 2024 season with a 3-1 loss to Saint Francis (Pa.) on Friday night, in the Quakers' first of three games at SFU's Red Flash Classic.
 
Set scores were 25-16, 29-27, 18-25, 25-23.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Sophomore Zada Sanger led the Penn attack on Friday night, finishing with 16 kills and hitting .262 on the night.
 
*In her first collegiate match, freshman Jenna Garner ended the night with 12 kills, while sophomore Bella Rittenberg had 11 and hit .280.
 
*Another freshman, Emery Moore, got the start at setter and finished the night with 36 assists and eight digs.
 
*Junior Abigail Reid tied for match-high honors with 17 digs while freshman Ellie Siskin finished with 15.
 
*Sanger also had a block solo and a block assist, while senior Kaya Johnson had two block assists.
 
*Garner, Rittenberg and Siskin all had service aces.
 
*SFU (2-3) got 21 kills and 17 digs from Maggie Hogan (who hit .356) and 20 kills and nine digs from Korrin Burns
 
How It Happened
Penn was climbing uphill right from the jump in Friday night's first set. The host Red Flash scored the first two points, then answered a Sanger kill with six more in a row to go up 8-1 and force a Penn timeout. That seemed to settle the Quakers, who reeled off six points in a row behind Garner and Murray who had two kills each in the run. It was still a three-point set, at 13-10, when SFU ran off five straight and eight of the next nine to get control back at 21-11. The Flash cruised from there. Garner had five kills in the first set of her collegiate career and hit .375.
 
Penn was battling against the tide again in the second set, with SFU's advantage still four at 18-14. An Adell Murray kill in the middle set Penn off on a six-point run, Sanger scoring the last four in the streak with kills that put the Quakers up 20-18. SFU recovered to score three in a row, forcing a Penn timeout, and then the teams were tied at 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 before the Red Flash got the two-point margin needed for the set win. Sanger had six kills in the set and Rittenberg added five (hitting .500).
 
Penn righted the ship in the third set; after falling behind by three points early, the Quakers were back level at 12-12. The score was tied again at 15-15 on a Murray kill, and then a pair of Garner kills were the impetus to what was a 7-1 Penn run and a 21-16 Quakers lead. SFU burned both of its timeouts in that stretch, and after Penn successfully challenged the first point out of the second TO the score was 22-16. The Red and Blue took it from there, finishing with the 25-18 win. Sanger had five more kills in the set, hitting .500, while Garner added four and Murray had three.
 
Penn and Saint Francis were tied four times to 5-5 in the fourth set, before a five-point Quakers run gave them a 9-5 lead. The Red Flash quickly recovered, getting back level at 10-10, and the teams essentially traded points for several sideouts after that, tying 10 times from 11-11 to 21-21. The next two points after that were long ones, and both of them went in SFU's favor to give the hosts a 23-21 lead. Penn head coach Meredith Schamun called timeouts after both of the points, and the breaks ultimately seemed to settle the Quakers as Sanger and Rittenberg sandwiched kills around a Saint Francis point to make it 24-23. It looked like the teams would go past 25 for the second time in the match after an SFU attack was called out, but the Red Flash challenged the call and—following a lengthy review—the challenge was upheld, the call was reversed, and Saint Francis had an anticlimactic, 25-23 set win that gave them the match. Rittenberg had five kills and hit .500 in the final set, while Sanger had four kills.
 
Up Next
Penn is back in action twice on Saturday at the Red Flash Classic, playing Siena at 12:30 p.m. and Mercyhurst at 3 p.m. Neither match will be televised but you can follow along via live stats here.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.