NEWARK, Del. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team continued its winning ways on Friday night, making the short trip to the University of Delaware and sweeping the Blue Hens, 3-0, at the Bob Carpenter Center.
 
Set scores were 25-18, 25-20, 25-22.
 
Penn has won two in a row and is 5-3 on the season. Delaware fell to 2-6 with the loss.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*All five of Penn's wins so far this season have come via sweep.
 
*Penn never trailed in the first and third sets on Friday night.
 
*Penn hit a season-high .375 on Friday night, putting down 50 kills with just 11 errors. Four different players ended the night with at least five kills while hitting at least .471.
 
*It was the junior duo of Bella Rittenberg and Zada Sanger who led the attack, Rittenberg finishing the night with 12 kills and Sanger putting down 11. Rittenberg hit .474 (12K-3E-19A) and had the final kill of the night, while Sanger was just behind her hitting .429 (11K-2E-21A) and adding two block assists and six digs.
 
*Sophomore Jenna Garner put down nine kills without an error on 19 attacks, hitting .474 for the game. She also had 10 digs and a block assist.
 
*Senior Jalen Tennyson had five kills without an error, hitting .556, and added a block assist.
 
*Sophomore Adell Murray had seven kills and tied Sanger for the team lead with two block assists, while classmate Ellie Siskin put down five kills.
 
*Sophomore Emery Moore and senior Anna Shohfi shared time at setter on Friday, and both of them finished with 21 assists. Moore also led Penn with two service aces and had five digs, while Shohfi had two digs.
 
*Freshman libero Addison Pollock, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week, led the Quakers with 12 digs.
 
How It Happened
SET 1 (25-18): Penn threw the first punch on Friday night at The Bob, blowing out to a 7-2 lead and forcing a UD timeout. That lead held the rest of the way, the Quakers keeping things comfortable for the most part. The largest lead was seven on a few occasions including the final score of the set. Sanger ended the set with a kill, her third of the set without an error (.429), while Murray and Rittenberg added three kills and Tennyson had two.
 
SET 2 (25-20): The teams were tied seven times in getting to 8-8, before a pair of kills by UD's Anna Logan Gillens put the Hens in front by two. That lead held to 14-12, at which point a Delaware service error opened a door that the Quakers were happy to walk through—a Siskin kill tied things up, then Moore followed a UD attack error with an ace to make Penn's lead 16-14 and force a Delaware timeout. Once again, that lead held the rest of the way and the Quakers' knockout run came late, a 5-1 stretch that turned a 19-18 lead into a 23-19 advantage on the way to the victory. Garner had four kills and hit .444, her final spike ending matters. Rittenberg hit .667 (4-0-6), Murray hit .600 (3-0-5), and both Sanger and Siskin hit .400 (2-0-5).
 
SET 3 (25-22): This set was tied 6-6, but back-to-back kills by Rittenberg and Garner started a three-point run that held the rest of the way. The lead bulged to as much as six, at 17-11 on a Pollock ace, but UD scored the next two points and then used another modest two-point run to get within 20-18 which forced Penn head coach Tyler Hagstrom to call timeout. Sanger and Delaware's Jayda Redd traded kills across the next four points, putting the score at 22-20, but then Rittenberg and Murray got the Red and Blue to match point. The Hens fought off two of them, bringing about another Penn timeout, and out of the stoppage Rittenberg put down her 11th kill of the night to finish off the night's hosts. Sanger had six kills in the set while Rittenberg and Garner added four each.
 
Up Next
Penn is back in action tomorrow afternoon in Newark, facing Saint Peter's in a neutral-site match that starts at 1 p.m.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.