PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team closes out the 2025 regular season this weekend, hosting Dartmouth and Harvard at The Palestra. Prior to Saturday's game with the Crimson, the Quakers will honor their graduating seniors: Claire Deller, Feyi Ogunlari, Abigail Reid, Anna Shohfi, and Jalen Tennyson.
 
Penn is playing for pride this weekend; the Quakers were knocked out of Ivy League Tournament contention last week when Yale wrapped up the fourth and final spot on Saturday night. With a weekend sweep, Penn would secure fifth place and match its win totals from last year both overall and in Ivy play.
 
Game 23 – PENN (11-11, 5-7 Ivy League) vs. DARTMOUTH (7-15, 4-8)
Friday, Nov. 14 | 7 p.m. | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Program (PDF)

Game 24 – PENN vs. HARVARD (6-14, 5-7)
Saturday, Nov. 15 | 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 Dartmouth
The Big Green has won seven of the last eight meetings, including a 3-2 decision on October 11 in Hanover (15-13 win in Set 5). Penn's lone win during this stretch came last season in Hanover, a 3-2 decision after Dartmouth had won the first meeting, 3-0, at The Palestra. Prior to the current streak, Penn had won four in a row dating back to 2018 but the Quakers are looking for their first home win over the Big Green since 2021.
 
The Series with Harvard
Penn has won the last three meetings with the Crimson, taking a 3-1 decision in Cambridge on October 10 after winning a pair of 3-2 decisions last year that included a road reverse sweep. It marked the Quakers' first season sweep of Harvard since 2016 and ended a stretch that saw the Crimson sweep in 2022 and 2023 after the teams had split the season series in 2019 and 2021.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn had one of the biggest wins in the program's recent history two weeks ago, erasing a 2-1 deficit in sets to beat Yale in New Haven, 3-2 (25-22, 19-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-11). The Bulldogs entered that match 24-1 at home in Ivy play since 2022, with 17 of those wins coming via sweep and just one going to five sets. It was the Quakers' first win over Yale since 2017 and their first in New Haven since they beat the Bulldogs in an Ivy League playoff all the way back in 2010.
 
*It was also Penn's first five-set win this season; the Quakers were 0-4 in five-setters prior to that (the losses coming to Coppin State, Temple, Brown, and Dartmouth).
 
*Eight of Penn's 10 wins this season have come via the sweep with the only exceptions coming on October 10 at Harvard (a 3-1 victory) and the five-setter at Yale.
 
*Relevant to this weekend: when Penn beat Columbia and then Cornell by matching 3-0 scores on October 17-18 at The Palestra, it marked the first time the Quakers swept an Ivy weekend 6-0 in sets since the final weekend of the 2021 season—coincidentally, against the (in order) Big Red and Lions!
 
*Penn entered the week ninth nationally in digs per set (17.28), 14th in attacks per set (37.69), 22nd in assists per set (12.93), and 33rd in kills per set (13.68). Individually, freshman Addison Pollock was 19th in digs per set (4.90) while classmate Haley Kerstetter was 41st in hitting percentage (.383).
*In Ivy League play this season, Kerstetter is tops among Ancient Eight players in hitting percentage (.430) while Pollock is second in digs per set (.453) and sophomore Emery Moore is fourth in assists per set (8.09). Overall, junior Zada Sanger is fifth among Ivy players in kills per set (3.21).
 
*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.

*Seven women have played in at least 38 of Penn's 46 sets so far in Ivy League play. Of that group, four are sophomores and two are freshmen; the only upperclass player on the list is Sanger.
 
*Penn is wrapping up its first season under head coach Tyler Hagstrom. His hiring was late, 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 215 kills so far this season—including 36 across the Quakers' last three matches—sophomore Jenna Garner has collected kill/dig double-doubles each of the last three matches and has seven overall this season. She also finished one kill shy of another double-double vs. Princeton (9K/13D) and at Brown (9K/11D), one dig shy at home vs. Brown (12K/9D), and two digs shy at Harvard (11K/8D). She followed up the Harvard performance with a career-high 21 digs at Dartmouth. Garner also is second on the team with 23 service aces including nine across the last three matches.
 
*Sanger leads the team in kills, both overall (244) and in Ivy play (134), and had reached double digits in that category in 12 straight matches (3.59 k/s in that span) before finishing just shy with nine in Penn's sweep of Ivy leader Cornell on October 18. Out of 21 appearances this season, Sanger has 16 double-digit kill games and two others with nine.
 
*Sophomore Adell Murray is hitting .334 for the season, but that number goes up to .352 if you take out her performance in the season opener against Colorado (134K-22E-318A since then). Murray—who hit .500 at Columbia last Saturday (13K-2E-22A)—has hit .351 in Penn's Ivy League matches (72K-11E-174A) and also leads the team with 44.0 blocks overall (8s/36a) and 31.0 in Ivy play (4s/27a).
 
*Another sophomore, Ellie Siskin, has reached double figures in kills in each of Penn's last four matches including a 17-kill performance at Yale two weeks ago that marked her career high in an Ivy match and was one shy of her overall match best. She posted a double-double last Friday at Cornell, with 10 kills and 11 digs. The sophomore has filled the box score this season with a combined 213 kills, 111 digs, 29 block assists, and a team-leading 24 service aces.
 
*Freshman Haley Kerstetter has been an efficient offensive weapon since the start of Ivy play, hitting .430 (78K-14E-149A) in Penn's conference matches. She had six kills without an error on 11 attacks in the win at Yale, and last week she hit a combined .520 at Cornell at Columbia (16K-3E-25A). The freshman also has 43.0 blocks (9s/34a), second on the team behind Murray—her nine block solos lead the Quakers—and 14 service aces.
 
*Pollock—who missed last week's action at Cornell and Columbia—had 28 digs in Penn's five-setter at Dartmouth on October 11, a season/career high and her ninth time this season with more than 20. She is also third on the team in service aces (17) and was the Ivy League Rookie of the Week the week of September 15.
 
*Penn has had two setters rotate through much of the season. The sophomore, Moore, has seen more and more of the action as the season has progressed and has 639 assists so far this season—including 50 in the five-setter two weeks ago at Yale, two shy of her career high—while senior Anna Shohfi has 230.
 
*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.
 
*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.
 
*Shohfi and junior Lauren Van Wie are this year's captains.
 
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