PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team closes out a modest four-match homestand this weekend, as two more of the preseason Ivy League favorites come to The Palestra to battle the Quakers in Yale and Brown.
 
Penn was picked fifth in the Ivy League's preseason media poll, which featured two voters from each of the schools. The Quakers received 58 voting points. Friday's opponent, the Bulldogs, are the preseason favorite (121 points including 9 first-place votes) followed by Princeton (119/7); Saturday's opponent, Brown (88); and Cornell (79).
 
Game 12 – PENN (6-5, 0-1 Ivy League) vs. YALE (5-4, 1-0)
Friday, Oct. 3 | 7 p.m. | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Program (PDF)

Game 13 – PENN vs. BROWN (5-5, 0-1)
Saturday, Oct. 4 | 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 Yale
The Bulldogs have dominated this series for several years now, winning 11 in a row, 17 of the last 18, and 23 of 25 since the Quakers beat them 3-2 in an Ivy League playoff at New Haven in 2010. Last year Yale took a pair of 3-1 decisions. Penn's last win in the series came October 28, 2017, a 3-2 victory right here at The Palestra.
 
The Series with Brown
The Quakers and Bears split last year's season series, Penn winning 3-0 here at The Palestra and Brown returning the favor with a sweep a month later in Providence. Prior to that, Bruno had won six straight from 2021 through 2023. From 2010 until 2019, Penn swept Brown three times and split the season five times with the Bears.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn won three straight matches by 3-0 scores—from September 17-20 over NJIT, Delaware and Saint Peter's—before falling 3-2 to Temple and 3-0 to Princeton last week at The Palestra. 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, all six of Penn's wins this season have come via the sweep.
 
*Penn and Princeton totaled 72 points in the first set of their meeting last Friday, 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 on Friday, Penn fended off eight set points and Princeton fought off four before prevailing.
 
*Penn enters the weekend leading the nation in both digs per set (19.00) and assists per set (14.84) and is second nationally in kills per set (14.84). Individually, freshman Addison Pollock is fifth nationally (third among first-year players) in digs per set (5.53).
 
*Among Ivy teams, Penn leads the league in all three of the categories above and is second in hitting percentage (.252). Individually, junior Zada Sanger is second in kills per set (3.51).
 
*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 21 of Penn's 38 sets so far this season, just one is a senior—Anna Shohfi, who has played in 23 sets. Perhaps more impressively, four of them are sophomores and two are freshmen.
 
*Penn is in its first season under head coach Tyler Hagstrom. He is still just getting to know his players, as he was hired 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 115 kills so far this season—including a career-high 19 against Lafayette on September 13—sophomore Jenna Garner also has six 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 last Friday vs. Princeton (9K/13D).
 
*Sanger leads the team with 123 kills and has reached double digits in that category in seven straight matches (3.58 k/s in that span) and eight times overall this season.
 
*Sophomore Adell Murray is hitting .324 for the season, but that number goes up to .359 if you take out her performance in the season opener against Colorado (68K-11E-159A since then).
 
*Another sophomore, Ellie Siskin, has consistently filled the box score this season. She has 97 kills—including 11 in each of the last two matches—54 digs and 11 block assists and leads the Quakers with nine service aces.

*Freshman Haley Kerstetter had eight kills on 15 attacks without an error last Friday vs. Princeton, a season-best .533 hitting night; she also leads the team with six block solos and is second with 18.0 blocks for the season (just behind Murray's 19.0 and ahead of Sanger's 15.0).
 
*Pollock, meanwhile, matched her season/career high with 25 digs last Tuesday against Temple, then followed up with 24 in the three-set loss to Princeton. They were her sixth and seventh times this season with more than 20. She is also second behind Siskin in service aces (8) and was the Ivy League Rookie of the Week the week of September 15.
 
*Sophomore setter Emery Moore has 301 assists so far this season, an 8.60 per-set average, while the senior Shohfi has 139 (6.04 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.