PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team completed a standout Alumni Weekend at The Palestra on Saturday night, sweeping Ivy League leader Cornell 3-0.
Set scores were 29-27, 25-16, 25-16.
Penn has now won three of the last four games, improving to 3-4 in Ivy League play, and moved above .500 overall at 9-8. Cornell fell for the first time in Ivy play, at 6-1, and is now 11-6 overall.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn put down 38 kills and used a balanced offensive attack, with eight different players putting down kills and seven of them having at least three. No one on the team had more than nine.
*Penn held Cornell to .082 hitting on Saturday night (33K-23E-122A).
*Junior
Zada Sanger had nine kills, ending her streak of double-figure kills at 12 matches, and added two service aces, four digs, and one block assist.
*Sophomore
Ellie Siskin put down eight kills and added two digs and a block assist.
*Sophomore
Jenna Garner recorded six kills, four digs and three block assists as well as two service aces.
*Freshman
Haley Kerstetter and senior
Jalen Tennyson put down four kills each, with Tennyson ending the night with a .429 hitting percentage (4K-1E-7A); Kerstetter also had a block solo and three block assists, while Tennyson had a block solo and two block assists.
*Penn went back to the two-setter approach on Saturday, with sophomore
Emery Moore dishing off 15 assists and senior
Anna Shohfi adding 14. Moore also had three kills on seven attacks (.429) and 15 digs, while Shohfi had seven digs.
*Freshman
Addison Pollock tied Moore for the match high with 15 digs, served up a match-high four aces, and had her third kill of the season late in the first set.
*Junior
Bella Rittenberg finished with three kills on Saturday, including the final kill of the night to end the match.
How It Happened
SET 1 (Penn 29-27): Early indications that it might be a special night at The Palestra. Penn was up 5-2 early and expanded it to 10-5 on a Garner ace. The lead held until an Eliza Konvicka kill tied things at 17-17 and it was a taut affair from there. The Quakers were the first to open up a multi-point lead, kills by Sanger and Siskin breaking a 21-21 tie, and they got a set point on a Cornell service error at 24-22. However, the Big Red scored the next three points to get their own set point, only to commit an attack error which tied things at 25. Cornell scored the next point, only for
Jalen Tennyson to put down a kill and tie things up again. A Moore kill was matched by Cornell's Mackenzie Parsons, but then Penn put it away when Pollock ended a crazy point with what would be the freshman libero's only kill of the night and Garner served up an ace. Tennyson led the Quakers with three kills, hitting .600, while four other players had two and Pollock added seven digs to her kill.
SET 2 (Penn 25-16): Penn was down 6-4 but ripped off five straight points and seven of eight for an 11-7 lead. The knockout blow came shortly after that, at 14-10, when a pair of Sanger kills started Penn on an eight-point run and a 22-10 advantage. The Quakers cruised from there. Sanger finished with four kills while Garner had three.
SET 3 (Penn 25-16): The Quakers scored the first two points and six of the first seven and never looked back, holding that lead the rest of the way. Cornell got back within two at 7-5 and 8-6, but a pair of Big Red attack errors and a Sanger kill made the score 11-6 and then Penn answered Cornell's next point with five in a row as Sanger put down two kills and Pollock served up two aces. That pushed the Red and Blue in front by nine, at 16-7, and the margin reached double figures at 19-9. Ivy-leading Cornell had one more run in it, scoring four points in a row to get within 20-14. Penn head coach
Tyler Hagstrom took no chances, calling a timeout, and a Cornell service error out of the stoppage settled things as the Quakers scored five of the last seven points in the set. Sanger and Siskin had four kills each in the set while Kerstetter had a block solo and three block assists.
Up Next
Penn is on the road for the next three Ivy League weekends, starting next Friday when the Quakers make the short trip to Old Nassau to meet archrival Princeton. First serve at the Tigers' Dillon Gym is scheduled for 7 p.m.
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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