PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team won the first two sets Saturday night against Brown, but the Bears stormed back to win the last three and earn the 3-2, reverse-sweep victory at The Palestra.
Set scores were 18-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-10.
Penn fell to 6-7 overall and is now 0-3 in Ivy play having played the three preseason favorites. Brown—which swept Princeton on Friday night—improved to 7-5 overall and is now 2-1 in league play.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn lost this match despite putting down 10 more kills than Brown (67-57), scoring 11 more points (83.0-72.0), and hitting .257 compared to the Bears' .241.
*Penn had five different players reach double figures in kills on Saturday night: junior
Zada Sanger (15), sophomore
Ellie Siskin (13), sophomore
Jenna Garner (12), freshman
Haley Kerstetter (12), and sophomore
Adell Murray (11).
*For Sanger, it marked her ninth straight match with a double-digit kill total. She also had 13 digs for her first double-double this season.
*Garner had nine digs, leaving her one shy of her fifth double-double this season.
*Kerstetter's 12 kills came on 18 attacks without an error, a .667 hitting night. Murray finished at .360 (11K-2E-25A) and Siskin hit .333 (13K-3E-30A).
*Murray and Siskin had three block assists while Kerstetter and sophomore
Jenniya Lane had two each.
*Sophomore
Emery Moore had 32 assists and 17 digs on Saturday night while senior
Anna Shohfi dished out 22 assists and added three digs.
*Freshman
Addison Pollock led the Quakers with 21 digs on the night.
*Siskin served up a match-high five service aces, while Kerstetter had three and Pollock two.
How It Happened
SET 1 (Penn 25-18): The Quakers jumped out early, using a 5-1 run that featured kills by four different players and a Pollock ace to go up 8-3. That lead held the rest of the way, though the Bears got as close as two at 15-13. At that point, Sanger put down three of her four kills in the set and Siskin served up a staggering four aces for seven straight Penn points. Sanger hit a perfect 1.000 in the opening set, while Kerstetter added four kills and hit .800.
SET 2 (Penn 25-21): The teams were tied nine times in the set, the last coming at 14-14 when Sarah Shaw put down a kill for Brown. Sanger and Siskin followed up with kills, though, and then Pollock served an ace to put Penn in front, 17-14. Bruno got back within one with the next two points, only for Kerstetter to sandwich kills around another Sanger kill for a 20-16 Quakers lead. Brown never got closer than three the rest of the way. Sanger put down five more kills, hitting .364, while Kerstetter had another .800 game with four kills on five attacks for the second straight set and Pollock came up with eight digs.
SET 3 (Brown 25-22): A dramatic third, the teams tying 12 times and the lead changing hands four times. Penn led by five early, at 8-3, but Brown responded with the next five points to get back level. After that, neither team led by more than two until things were tied at 20-20. The Bears scored four of the next five points to get to set point, and while Garner fended one off with a kill Brown got the win with a Shaw kill. Garner had four kills without an error in the set, hitting .500, and Pollock had eight more digs.
SET 4 (Brown 25-21): This might have been the set that the Quakers will regret. They were up, 18-13, at which point Bruno put on the burners and scored six straight to go in front. Garner and Murray had kills among the next five points, Garner's kill tying things at 20-20 and Murray's at 21-21, but two straight kills by Brown's Elizabeth Sessa gave her team the break they needed and the Bears won the set's final four points. Siskin put down four kills on nine attacks without an error, while Garner had three kills on five attacks and Moore and Sanger had five digs each.
SET 5 (Brown 15-10): Siskin put down a kill to open the set, but Brown responded with the next four points and seven of the next eight to take control. Penn got within three on four occasions after that, the last at 13-10, but a Mariia Sidorova kill and a block by Sophia Wolfson and Julia Kakkis closed out the match. Siskin and Murray both hit .667 (2K-0E-3A) while Sanger had four more digs.
Up Next
Penn is on the road for the first time in Ivy League play next weekend, making the long road trip to Northern New England. The Quakers will face Harvard Friday at 7 p.m., then Dartmouth 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.
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