NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team stormed back in more ways than one on Saturday night at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. Coming off a loss last night at Brown, and down 2-1 in sets to three-time defending Ivy League champion Yale, the Quakers got up off the mat to score a stirring, 3-2 victory over the Bulldogs.
Set scores were 25-22, 19-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-11.
Penn (10-10, 4-6) won for the first time over Yale (10-8, 6-4) since 2017 and it was the Quakers' first victory in New Haven since they beat the Bulldogs 3-2 in an Ivy League playoff in 2010.
Quaker Notemeal
*Prior to Saturday night's match, Yale was 24-1 at home in Ivy League play since the start of 2022, the only loss coming last year to Princeton (3-1). Of the 24 wins, 17 were sweeps, six were four-setters, and just one was a five-setter (2023 vs. Brown).
*Penn won a five-set match for the first time this season; previously the Quakers were 0-4 in such matches with two of them coming in Ivy play.
*Penn hit .269 in the match, putting down 59 kills, and had 7.0 blocks (3s/8a).
*Four different players reached double figures in kills on Saturday night: sophomore
Ellie Siskin (17), junior
Zada Sanger (13), sophomore
Jenna Garner (11), and sophomore
Adell Murray (10).
*For Siskin, the 17 kills were a season high and one shy of her career best. She also had three service aces, five digs and a block assist.
*Garner also had 11 digs for her fifth double-double this season but her first in an Ivy match. The sophomore also served up a team-high four aces and had a block assist.
*Murray hit .450 in the match (10K-1E-20A) and added two digs, a block solo and a block assist.
*Freshman
Haley Kerstetter had another strong offensive night, putting down six kills on 11 attacks without an error (.545) and adding a block solo and two block assists.
*Sophomore
Emery Moore went the distance at setter and dished out 50 assists, two shy of her career high set last season at Harvard; she also had 15 digs, a kill (which ended the first set) and a service ace.
*Freshman libero
Addison Pollock led the Quakers with 18 digs.
*Senior
Jalen Tennyson provided a spark late, with a block solo and block assist in the fourth set and a kill in the decisive fifth.
How It Happened
SET 1 (Penn 25-22): The first multi-point lead in Saturday's first set didn't come until Penn went up 8-6, and the Quakers expanded it to 10-7 before Yale came back with four straight points to take the lead. The Bulldogs' first multi-point lead came at 13-11, but Penn responded with four straight points as Siskin bookended the run with kills. The Red and Blue never relinquished the lead, but things got dicey when Yale used a three-point run to get within a point at 22-21. Penn took a timeout, and out of the stoppage Garner put down a kill and then Siskin answered a Yale kill to get the Quakers to set point. The hosts took a timeout, but out of the break Pollock had a great dig on a Bulldog attack and then Moore turned it into an attack-on-two kill to end things. Siskin had six kills in the set while Sanger put down four kills on six attacks (.667).
SET 2 (Yale 25-19): Penn got out to a good start in this set, too, going ahead 10-6 as Kerstetter put down a pair of kills as part of a four-point Quakers' run. Yale took a timeout and, at 12-8, made its move—the Bulldogs ripped off four straight points and seven of eight to move in front 15-13. The margin grew to four at 19-15 and the Red and Blue never got closer than three the rest of the way. Sanger finished the set with five kills, while Kerstetter hit .667 with four kills.
SET 3 (Yale 25-19): Penn led 8-6, but the Bulldogs scored eight of the next ten points to take a lead that they never relinquished. The Quakers took a timeout at that 14-10 juncture and halved the lead at 15-13, but Yale scored two in a row and five of the next six to achieve some separation at 20-14. The Red and Blue got within four points on two occasions but didn't have nearly enough to come back. Garner led the attack with three kills, while Siskin and Murray had two each.
SET 4 (Penn 25-19): Penn led 5-3 early, but the Bulldogs scored three points in a row and then answered a Quakers point with three more to go up 9-6. That brought about a timeout from Penn coach
Tyler Hagstrom. The stoppage worked—the Red and Blue ripped off five straight points to go in front 11-9 and force a Yale timeout. The run extended to 8-1, making Penn's lead 14-10, before Yale scored three in a row to get within one. Siskin responded with a pair of kills, however, and then Murray put one down to get the margin back to four and bring about Yale's final timeout. This stoppage worked: after another Siskin kill made it 18-13, the hosts ripped off four straight points to make it 18-17 and force Hagstrom to burn his final timeout. It worked again—Penn scored four in a row, going up 22-17, and were content to trade points the rest of the way. Siskin was magnificent in the set, hitting .889 with eight kills on nine attacks and two digs, a block assist and an ace. Tennyson also provided a spark, with a block solo and block assist in her first action of the night.
SET 5 (Penn 15-11): Yale won the first point, but Penn scored the next two and then answered the Bulldogs' second point with four in a row—Siskin serving up back-to-back aces in the run—that forced the hosts to take a timeout. Out of the stoppage, Garner sandwiched kills around a Yale point and the teams switched benches with the Quakers up 8-3. Penn then won the first point after the switch, forcing the final Eli timeout, and Sanger put one down to make it 10-3. The three-time defending champions weren't going to go down without a fight, though—the Bulldogs got as close as 13-11 before Hagstrom finally used a timeout. The stoppage "froze" Yale's Isabella Mendoza, who served up an error. Then a Bulldog attack error ended things. Garner had three kills and five digs in the final set, while Sanger and Murray had two kills each and Siskin had the two aces.
Up Next
Penn will be in a New York state of mind next weekend, traveling to Cornell on Friday and Columbia on Saturday.
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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