PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team is back at home for Alumni Weekend this Friday and Saturday, hosting the last-place team in the conference standings on Friday (Columbia) before taking on the Ivy League leader entering the weekend on Saturday (Cornell).
 
In the Ivy League's preseason media poll, Saturday's opponent, Cornell, was picked fourth (79 voting points) but the Big Red sits atop the Ivy standings and boasts wins over two teams picked ahead of them after beating Brown (3-1) and Yale (3-0) last weekend in Ithaca. Penn was selected fifth (58 pts) while Friday's opponent, Columbia, was eighth with 16 points.
 
Game 16 – PENN (7-8, 1-4 Ivy League) vs. COLUMBIA (2-13, 0-5)
Friday, Oct. 17 | 7 p.m. | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Program (PDF)
 
Game 17 – PENN vs. CORNELL (10-5, 5-0)
Saturday, Oct. 18 | 5 p.m. | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | 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 Columbia
The Quakers have swept the season series from the Lions each of the last two years. That includes a pair of 3-0 decisions last year, while in 2023 Penn won 3-1 at The Palestra and 3-0 in New York City. Columbia swept the season in 2022, both by 3-1 scores, after Penn won both meetings in 2021 (3-1 in NYC, 3-0 in Philly).
 
The Series with Cornell
The Big Red has swept the season series each of the last two years, after the teams split the season in both 2021 and 2022. Last year, Cornell earned a pair of 3-1 victories while in 2023 the Big Red won 3-1 at The Palestra and 3-0 in Ithaca. Penn's last win came on October 8, 2022, a 3-2 victory at The Palestra.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn won three straight matches by 3-0 scores from September 17-20 (over NJIT, Delaware and Saint Peter's). You have to go all the way back to the 2009 season to find the last time the Quakers won three straight matches by sweep (October 23-30 against Cornell, Columbia and Yale).
 
*In fact, six of Penn's seven wins this season have come via the sweep with the only exception coming last Friday at Harvard (a 3-1 victory).
 
*Penn and Princeton totaled 72 points in the first set of their meeting on September 26, the Tigers ultimately winning 37-35. It marked just the seventh time in program history the Quakers have played a set with that many points; the other six took place during an era when colleges played first-to-30 sets (2001-07). The most recent of those took place on November 12, 2005, Penn beating Columbia 38-36 in the first set of an eventual 3-0 win. Starting at 24-23 in the match last month, Penn fended off eight set points and Princeton fought off four before prevailing.
 
*Penn entered the week leading the nation in digs per set (18.00), third in attacks per set (38.91), ninth in assists per set (13.31), and 12th in kills per set (14.15). Individually, freshman Addison Pollock was ninth nationally (third among first-year players) in digs per set (5.18).
 
*Among Ivy teams, Penn is tops in all of the above categories and second in points per set (17.04) behind only Saturday's opponent, Cornell (17.33). Individually, junior Zada Sanger is second in kills per set (3.50) behind only the Big Red's Eliza Konvicka (4.00).
 
*Speaking of Sanger, she was named Ivy League Player of the Week on September 22 after earning Tournament MVP honors at the Delaware Invitational. Her classmate, Bella Rittenberg, was named all-tournament at Delaware after she put down 12 kills (hitting .474) and added two digs and two assists in Penn's win over the host Blue Hens.

*Of the ten women who have played at least 35 of Penn's 55 sets so far this season, just one is a senior—Anna Shohfi, who has played in 40 sets. Perhaps more impressively, four of them are sophomores and two are freshmen.
 
*Penn is in its first season under head coach Tyler Hagstrom. It was a late hire, coming just before the preseason on July 16 after previous head coach Meredith Schamun left the Quakers to become the associate head coach at the University of Illinois.
 
*Hagstrom came to Penn after a successful five-year run at Bucknell that included the Bison going 21-5 last year and setting a program record with 13 wins in Patriot League play. Despite only coaching five seasons at Bucknell, Hagstrom left as the program's all-time leader in win percentage (59-48, .551).
 
*In addition to putting down 147 kills so far this season—including a career-high 19 against Lafayette on September 13—sophomore Jenna Garner also has nine double-figure dig performances and four kill/dig double-doubles this season, the most recent coming on September 23 (13K/14D vs. Temple). She finished one kill shy of another double-double vs. Princeton (9K/13D), one dig shy vs. Brown (12K/9D), and two digs shy last Friday at Harvard (11K/8D). She followed up last Friday's performance with a career-high 21 digs the next night at Dartmouth.
 
*Sanger leads the team with 182 kills and has reached double digits in that category in 11 straight matches (3.53 k/s in that span) and 12 times overall this season.
 
*Sophomore Adell Murray is hitting .315 for the season, but that number goes up to .342 if you take out her performance in the season opener against Colorado (99K-16E-243A since then). Murray has hit .323 in Penn's first five Ivy League matches (37K-5E-99A) and also leads the team with 30.0 blocks overall (5s/25a).
 
*Another sophomore, Ellie Siskin, has consistently filled the box score this season. She has 135 kills—including 14 last Saturday at Dartmouth 13 vs. Brown and 11 vs. Princeton—71 digs and 19 block assists and leads the Quakers with 18 service aces (including five two weeks ago vs. Bruno).
 
*Freshman Haley Kerstetter has been an offensive weapon since the start of Ivy play, hitting a staggering .433 (34K-5E-67A) in Penn's five conference matches. She had 12 kills on 18 attacks without an error two weeks ago against Brown and put down 10 kills last Saturday at Dartmouth. The freshman also has 26.0 blocks (7s/19a), second on the team behind Murray; her seven block solos lead the Quakers.
 
*Pollock, meanwhile, had 28 digs in last Saturday's five-setter at Dartmouth, a season/career high and her ninth time this season with more than 20. She is also tied for second on the team with Kerstetter in service aces (12) and was the Ivy League Rookie of the Week the week of September 15.
 
*Sophomore setter Emery Moore has 410 assists so far this season, an 7.88 per-set average, while the senior Shohfi has 195 (4.88 a/s).
 
*Penn went 1-2 at the Charm City Classic, falling at Coppin State on Friday (3-2) and then splitting matches with Lafayette (a 3-0 win) and Towson (a 3-1 loss) on Saturday. Towson's win over Penn was its ninth in a row this season.
 
*Penn started the 2025 season on the right foot, going 2-1 at the Anteater Classic. The Quakers fell to Colorado to start the tournament, 3-0, but rebounded to sweep Fresno State and host UC Irvine.
 
*Garner and Murray were named to the Anteater Classic all-tournament team. Garner had 26 kills, hit .303 on the weekend, and added 34 digs with a pair of kills/digs double-doubles (11/18 vs. Fresno, 14/12 vs. UC Irvine). Murray had 24 kills and hit .281 on the weekend (21K-4E-43A, .395 in the two wins).
 
*Sanger also had a standout weekend offensively in her home state, finishing the three matches with a team-high 30 kills. That included a five-set run across the Fresno State and Irvine matches where Sanger put down 20 kills without an error.
 
*Two freshmen stood out in their first collegiate action. Up front, Kerstetter led Penn with seven blocks (4s/3a) and put down 16 kills, hitting .308. On the back line, libero Pollock led the Quakers with 50 digs.
 
*Still another sophomore, Siskin, was a regular in the rotation and finished the three matches with 20 kills, 20 digs, and a team-high six service aces.
 
*The trip to Irvine served as a homecoming for seven Penn players who hail from the Golden State: seniors Claire Deller (Del Mar) and Jalen Tennyson (Los Angeles); juniors Rittenberg (Fallbrook) and Sanger (Berkeley); sophomores Garner (Pasadena) and Hailey Hilsabeck (Lafayette); and freshman Taylor Roloff (Alameda).
 
*Penn made a massive leap last season under Schamun, going 13-10 overall and finishing Ivy League play at 7-7. In both cases, the win totals more than tripled from the previous season when the Quakers finished 4-20 overall and 2-12 in Ivy play.
 
*Even better: almost the entire core returns. Penn returns 98.2 percent of its kills, 94.0 percent of its blocks, 93.0 percent of its digs, and 98.7 percent of its service aces. The Quakers return four players who had more than 100 kills last year and three others who had more than 50; five players who finished with at least 100 digs; and six players who ended the campaign with more than 20 blocks. Penn also returns its top two setters.
 
*In looking at last year's stats, there were 11 women who played in at least 62 of Penn's 88 sets. Only one of those players does not return—Kat Alexander, who graduated after playing in 66 sets. And yet the Quakers still remain relatively young: of the remaining 10, only Abigail Reid (67) and Anna Shohfi (63) are seniors.
 
*Some historic wins last season: Penn won at Princeton on September 27, 3-1, the Quakers' first win over the Tigers since 2015. (In that match, Penn dropped the first set but won the next three.) One week later, the Quakers downed Brown 3-0 for their first win over the Bears since 2019. Finally, the Quakers swept Harvard last season, the first time that's happened since 2016.
 
*Three returning players have earned All-Ivy recognition at some point during their career. Sanger and Murray received honorable mention All-Ivy recognition after last season, while Reid earned honorable mention recognition following her freshman season in 2022.
 
*Penn players earned the Ivy League Rookie of the Week honor three times last season; Murray was the Ivy League Rookie of the Week in Week 1 and setter Moore was the recipient on consecutive weeks (September 23 and 30).
 
*Sanger has been Penn's top offensive player since she arrived on campus, leading Penn in kills both last year (260, 3.17 per set) and as a freshman (265). She hit .232 last season, up from .159 her freshman year, and tied for the team lead last year with eight block solos to go with 27 block assists.
 
*Another junior, Bella Rittenberg, had 215 kills last season (2.53 per set) and enters the campaign with 364 in her career. Rittenberg—who hit .296 last year—also had 116 digs and 31 block assists last year, served up 16 aces, and had three double-doubles.
 
*Murray ended her freshman season with 209 kills (2.38 per set), a solid .341 hitting percentage, and a team-leading 54 blocks (6s/48a).
 
*Her classmate, Moore, quickly established herself as the team's setter last year and finished the campaign with 772 assists (8.77 per set). She also led the Quakers with 206 digs and finished with 26 blocks (4s/22a) and 61 kills (.242 hitting percentage).
 
*Of note, Murray and Moore were the only two players last season to play in all 88 sets for the Quakers. After that, Rittenberg played in 85, Sanger played in 82, and Siskin played in 80.
 
*Siskin ended last season with 167 kills (2.09 per set), 172 digs and 23 blocks (3s/20a). She also led the Quakers with 27 service aces and had three kills/digs double-doubles in her freshman campaign.
 
*Two other players hit the 20-ace mark last year, sophomore Jenniya Lane (22) and junior Elsa McDermott (20). Lane also finished the season with 49 blocks (8s/41a), good for second on the team, while McDermott had 83 digs.
 
*Reid was second on the team with 174 digs last season after leading the team in that category her freshman (414) and sophomore (246) seasons and enters this season needing 166 to reach 1,000.
 
*Garner was a back-line stalwart last year with 134 digs, 68 kills and 16 aces.
 
*Shohfi and junior Lauren Van Wie are this year's captains.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.