QUEENS, N.Y. – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team (6-1, 0-0 Ivy League) travels to Queens this weekend to compete in the John Kaiser Invitational hosted by St. John's, playing three matches Friday and Saturday. 
 
GAME 1 | Penn (6-1, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. St. John's (8-2, 0-0 Big East)
Friday, Sept. 19 | 1 p.m. | Queens, N.Y.
Stream: Youtube  
Stats


GAME 2 | Penn (6-1, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. Rutgers (7-2, 0-0 Big Ten)
Friday, Sept. 19 | 4 p.m. | Queens, N.Y. 
Stats


GAME 3 | Penn (6-1, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. Bryant (5-8, 0-0 American East)
Saturday, Sept. 19 | 2 p.m. | Queens, N.Y.
Stats
  
LAST TIME OUT
- The Quakers swept Rider in their home opener Wednesday night to extend their winning streak to six matches, its longest since the 2019 season. 
- Penn took down Rider in three sets, 25-18, 25-13, and 25-11, hitting a season-best .376 for the match.
- Zada Sanger led the offense with 10 kills and two blocks while Jenna Garner went for 9 kills. 
- Emery Moore and Nathalie Tsai both tallied 17 assists while Addison Pollock led the defense with 13 digs.
 
ALL-LEAGUE NODS
- Adell Murray (.451) and Haley Kerstetter (.443) currently lead the league in hitting percentage. 
- Addison Pollock leads the conference in digs (158) (5.45 avg/s).
- Penn currently leads in points (518), hitting percentage (.277), assists (388) (13.38 avg/s), kills (406) (14.00 avg/s), and digs (490) (16.90 avg/s)  
 
HISTORY
-Penn is 1-1 all-time vs. St. John's,  losing their last matchup 1-3 13 years ago on Sept. 27, 2003.
- The Quakers are 0-3 all-time vs. Rutgers, taking a set in their last matchup 1-3 9 years ago on Sept. 15, 2017
- The Red and Blue meet Bryant for the first matchup in both program's history.
 
COACHING STAFF NUGGETS
-Penn is in its second season under head coach Tyler Hagstrom, who played collegiately for the Cal Baptist men's team. He was hired on July 16, 2025 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 in 2024 and setting a program record with 13 wins in Patriot League play. Hagstrom left Bucknell as the program's all-time leader in win percentage (59-48, .551).
-He holds a 76-61 career record, including a 14-13 mark with the Quakers.
-Hagstrom is joined by assistant coaches Wyatt Emenaker and Alyssa Bert. Emenaker is in his third season and came to Penn from VCU. Bert enters her second season, joining the program after finishing her career playing at Syracuse as a graduate student. She also played at Colorado State.
 
WEEKLY AWARDS
- Kerstetter was named MVP of the Leopard Invitational while hitting a .620 in three matches, including .833 on 10 kills last night in a sweep. 
- Zada Sanger totaled 1.83 kills, 0.50 blocks and 0.50 digs per set in three wins this weekend, and Addison Pollock posted a fantastic 7.00 digs per set, including a career-best 34 digs on Saturday night vs. Quinnipiac, resulting in both Quakers being named to the Leopard Invitational All-Tournament Team.

2025 RUN DOWN
-In year one under head coach Tyler Hagstrom, the Quakers posted a 12-12 (6-8 Ivy League) record. They lost their season opener to Colorado (3-0) before notching sweeps over Fresno State and UC Irvine at the Anteater Classic. UPenn went on to finish 6-4 in non-conference play, earning sweeps in all six wins. The Quakers started conference play slowly, losing their first three league matches before taking down Harvard on the road, starting a span where the team won three of its next four games.

CALI DREAMIN'
-Penn boasts eight players who hail from California, including: seniors Bella Rittenberg (Fallbrook) and Zada Sanger (Berkeley); juniors Jenna Garner (Pasadena) and Hailey Hilsabeck (Lafayette); sophomore Taylor Roloff (Alameda) and freshmen Pilar Kelley (San Francisco), Reese Stringer (Manhattan Beach) and Lauryn Lewis (Los Angeles).
 
PRESEASON PICKS
-Penn was picked fifth in the Ivy League's preseason media poll, which featured two voters from each of the schools. The Quakers garnered 65 points, followed by Harvard (49), Dartmouth (36) and Columbia (20). Princeton (122 points) had 11 first place votes while Yale (115) had four first place votes. Brown (82) had one first place vote.
 
PUTTING THE LEAGUE ON NOTICE
-Last year the Quakers ranked first in the conference with 17.12 digs per set, over two dps higher than the second place team in Princeton (15.09).
-Penn ranked second in the Ivy with 12.91 assists per set and 13.69 kills per set.
- Penn currently leads in points (518), hitting percentage (.277), assists (388) (13.38 avg/s), kills (406) (14.00 avg/s), and digs (490) (16.90 avg/s)  

RETURNERS SET TO LEAD THE WAY
-Penn brings back a ton of production, including its top seven scorers. Zada Sanger (3.32 kps), Jenna Garner (2.67 kps), Ellie Siskin (2.61 kps) and Adell Murray (2.06) all averaged over two kills per set in 2025.
-As the team's main setter from a year ago, junior Emery Moore returns after notching over eight assists (8.24 aps) a set.
-Defensively, seven of the team's top eight blockers are back as well. Hailey Kerstetter (0.68 bps) and Adell Murray (0.66 bps) lead the charge out of the middle.
-The top digging team in the Ivy brings back five players who tallied over 100 digs, including Addison Pollock (360), Jenna Garner (274) and Emery Moore (236).
 
MATCH HIGHS
-The Quakers tallied 61 kills against Navy Sept. 5th, the most kills of any Ivy team in a four-set match this season.
-Penn had 90 digs vs. Quinnipiac, and 83 vs. Rhode Island, the top two of any Ivy team so far this season.
-Addison Pollock's 34 digs vs. Quinnipiac were the most by any conference player in a match this season.

STATEMENT WINS IN YEAR ONE
-A couple notable wins from year one of the Tyler Hagstrom era included victories over three-time defending conference champion Yale (3-2 on Nov. 1) and a sweep over then Ivy League leader Cornell on Oct. 18.

PALESTRA CELEBRATING YEAR 100 IN 2026-27
-The Quakers will celebrate 100 years of the Historic Palestra this season, the home of Penn Volleyball since 1990. Penn will play nine home matches there this season.
 
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
-Penn announced that junior outside Jenna Garner and senior libero/defensive specialists Lauren Van Wie and Elsa McDermott have been named captains for the 2026 season.

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.

For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.