EASTON, Pa. -- The Penn Quakers defeated the Rhode Island Rams in five sets, 25-20, 22-25, 24-26, 25-20, 15-8. With the win, Penn has now won four straight since dropping its season opener, marking the program's longest winning streak since 2019.
Haley Kerstetter tallied a career-high 16 kills with seven blocks while
Skylar Greene hit a career-best with 15 kills.
Addison Pollock led the defense with 28 digs and 11 assists, while
Emery Moore posted another double double with 16 assists and 12 digs.
Penn (4-1, 0-0 Ivy League) hit .273 for the match compared to .171 for Rhode Island. Penn had 71 kills, 14.0 blocks, 83 digs and eight aces while Rhode Island had 54 kills, 5.0 blocks, 73 digs and 11 aces.
Cara Richter led Rhode Island (3-5, 0-0 A-10) with 15 kills and 13 digs while Emily Sawyer went for 14 kills.
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET 1 | Rhode Island too the early lead, scoring three of the first four before Penn got hot, going on a 9-3 run to go up 10-6. Kerstetter had a pair of kills, a block and an ace in the spurt. Garner and Sanger had kills in the next five points as the Quakers took a 15-11 lead into the media break. A 5-1 URI run after that tied it up at 16, forcing a coach Hagstrom timeout. Kills from five different Quakers helped Penn take a 22-18 lead late in the set, forcing a Rams timeout. The Quakers would close out the frame by scoring three of the next five, winning 25-20.
SET 2 | The two teams split the first 12 points before Rhode Island went on a 5-1 run, leading to a Penn timeout trailing 11-7. URI refused to slow down, scoring four of the next six to go up 15-9 into the media break. URI held a steady advantage up to 20-13 before caoch Hagstrom called another timeout. The Quakers responded with kills from Greene, Kerstetter and Sanger to make it 20-16, forcing a timeout from URI. Two Rams kills made it 22-16 before the Quakers got hot, posting three kills, an ace and getting two errors in a 6-1 run that made it 23-22, Rams, forcing a timeout. A URI kill and an error from Penn gave the Rams a 25-22 set two win to tie the match.
SET 3 | Rhode Island came out firing again in the third set, scoring seven of the first 11. URI went up 10-7 before the Quakers got hot, scoring five straight to make it 12-10, forcing a Rams timeout. Greene had three kills and Garner tallied an ace in the spurt. URI scored three of the next four to tie it at 13-13 before another Greene kill and an opponent attacking error put Penn up 15-13 into the media timeout. URI tied it up again at 16-all before the Quakers tallied three straight to go up 19-16, leading to the final timeout for its opposition. Penn went up as many as four at 22-18 before two kills and an ace from URI made it 22-20, forcing a timeout from Penn. Kills from Kerstetter and Greene put the Quakers up 24-21 before URI responded with two straight, leading to a timeout. The Rams kept their run going, tallying three straight after the break, capping the set on a 5-0 run to go up 2-1 in the match.
SET 4 | URI and Penn split the first eight points before the Quakers got hot, tallying 10 of the next 15 to go up 14-9. Garner, Kerstetter and Sanger had multiple kills each in the spurt. The Quakers took a 15-12 lead into the media break. Kills from Kelly and Sanger put Penn up 19-14 and the two teams split the next few points up to 22-17, forcing a timeout from Rhode Island. A kill and an ace from Greene helped Penn seal the frame with a 25-20 win to even the match at two sets apiece.
SET 5 | Penn scored three of the first four before URI answered with a 4-1 run to take the lead at 5-4. The two teams exchanged points after that before a Murray kill and URI error put Penn up 8-6 midway through set five, leading to a timeout from the Rams. The Quakers kept up the pressure, getting two more kills from Kerstetter to go up 12-8. URI called its final timeout at this point. Two kills from Garner and one more from Greene gave Penn a 15-8 win in set five to take the match.
QUAKER NOTEMEAL
» Penn is now 6-3 all-time against Rhode Island.
» Penn's four-match winning streak is its longest since 2019.
» Penn is 2-1 in five set matches this season.
» The Quakers posted season-highs in assists (70), kills (71) and points (93.0).
» Penn posted a season-high 14.0 blocks, topping yesterday's high of 13.0.
»
Haley Kerstetter had a career-best 16 kills on .636. She also had a team-best 7.0 blocks.
»
Jenna Garner had 14 kills, her fourth match of the year with 10+.
»
Skylar Greene went for a career-best 15 kills.
»
Addison Pollock had 28 digs, her 24th career match with 10+ and fifth this season. She also had 11 assists for her second double double of the year.
»
Emery Moore went for her third double double of the year with 16 assists and 12 digs.
»
Nathalie Tsai went for a team-best 29 assists, a career-high.
UP NEXT
Penn will take on Lafayette at 7 p.m. tonight in the Leopard Invitational.
