PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team is back into tournament action this weekend, though it's a much shorter trip for the Quakers. After being on the West Coast last weekend, the Red and Blue are in the Baltimore region this weekend, facing Coppin State in the Charm City on Friday before moving out to the suburbs for a pair of matches at Towson's SECU Arena on Saturday.
 
Game 4 – PENN (2-1, 0-0 Ivy League) at COPPIN STATE (2-5)
Friday, Sept. 12 | 6 p.m. | Baltimore
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
Game 5 – PENN vs. LAFAYETTE (1-5)
Saturday, Sept. 13 | 1:30 p.m. | Towson, Md.
Live Stats
 
Game 6 – PENN at TOWSON (5-2)
Saturday, Sept. 13 | 6 p.m. | Towson, Md.
Watch Live on FloSports ($) | Live Stats
 
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 (including Friday's contest at Coppin State), 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 Coppin State
The Quakers are 1-2 all-time against the Eagles, and this will be the fourth meeting in five years between the programs. Penn won the first match in 2021, 3-1, but Coppin responded with wins in the next two meetings, 3-0 in 2023 at The Palestra in Philadelphia and 3-2 last year in Baltimore.
 
The Series with Lafayette
Penn is 15-2 all-time against the Leopards, but it was Lafayette that won the most recent meeting. These teams actually met on back-to-back days as part of the Quakers' Penn Invitational in 2023, the Red and Blue winning the first meeting 3-0 but Lafayette coming back with a 3-1 victory a day later.
 
The Series with Towson
The Quakers and Tigers are meeting for just the second time in Penn's program history. The first meeting came during the 2015 season at Penn's tournament, the Tigers leaving The Palestra with a 3-1 win.
 
California Dreamin'
Last week's trip to UC Irvine's Anteater Classic 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 Bella Rittenberg (Fallbrook) and Zada Sanger (Berkeley); sophomores Jenna Garner (Pasadena) and Hailey Hilsabeck (Lafayette); and freshman Taylor Roloff (Alameda).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*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 comes 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).
 
*Penn was picked fifth in the Ivy League's preseason media poll, which featured two voters from each of the schools. The Quakers garnered 58 voting points and finished the poll behind Yale (121 points including 9 first-place votes), Princeton (119/7), Brown (88) and Cornell (79).
 
*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.
 
*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.
 
*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 further 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.
 
*Penn started the 2025 season on the right foot, as well, going 2-1 in Irvine last weekend. The Quakers fell to Colorado to start the tournament, 3-0, but rebounded to sweep Fresno State and the host Anteaters.
 
*Sophomores Jenna Garner and Adell 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).
 
*Junior Zada Sanger also had a standout weekend offensively, 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, Haley Kerstetter led Penn with seven blocks (4s/3a) and put down 16 kills, hitting .308. On the back line, libero Addison Pollock led the Quakers with 50 digs.
 
*Sophomore Emery Moore got the start at setter and ended the weekend with 88 assists and 36 digs.
 
*Still another sophomore, Ellie Siskin, was a regular in the rotation last weekend and finished the three matches with 20 kills, 20 digs, and a team-high six service aces.
 
*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.
 
*The team has not yet announced captains for the 2025 season.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.