University of Pennsylvania Athletics

QUEENS, N.Y - The Penn Quakers split today, beating Rutgers in a nail biter 25-23, 25-21, 17-25, and 25-22, however not before losing to St. John's 25-19, 25-18, 18-25, and 25-15.
 
Zada Sanger tallied a career-high 14 kills with 16 points against St. John's. Against Rutgers, Adell Murray also tallied a career high 17.5 points, Ellie Siskin had a career high 18 digs, and Emery Moore tallied 42 assists, her second highest of the season. Addison Pollock led the defense with 24 digs against St. John's, and 19 against Rutgers. 
 
Against Rutgers, Penn had 55 kills, 9.0 blocks, 57 digs and four aces, while the Scarlett Knights had 54 kills, 6.0 blocks, 73 digs and three aces.

For St. John's, Lejla Hadžiredžepovic and Carolaled Tesoro led with 16 kills each, Rashanny Solano Smith led with 41 digs, Amanda Caputi led with 38 assists. 
 
HISTORY MADE 
With the win against Rutgers, Penn takes it's first win over a Power Four team since 2010 (v. West Virginia), and first program win against a Big Ten team. 

HOW IT HAPPENED
Game 1
SET 1 | St. John's started with an early lead, taking the first four points unanswered. The Quakers fought back, gaining a short-lived lead. Back and forth until 18-19, St. John's gains 6 of the next 7 points to take the set 25-19.

SET 2 | St John's and Penn battled to begin this set, going back and forth until it was 15s across the board. St John's then took a two-point lead at 18-16, and continued to score eight of the last 10 points to secure the set 25-18.
 
SET 3 | Penn starts off rolling, Addison Pollock leading with a five-point serving run, putting the Quakers up 6-1. Penn continues to maintain this momentum, being the first to 15, with St. John's only at eight. After back to back attack errors from St. John's Lejla Hadžiredžepovic, Penn took the set 25-18.

SET 4 | St. John's took off in the fourth set, going on a eight point run to gain a 17-7 lead. From there, the Quakers would go on to score only eight more points, and the Johnnies took the final set 25-15.

Game 2
SET 1 | Penn took an early lead, scoring four of the first five points, and maintaining that lead until reaching 16-16. From there, the back and forth began until a 3 point run led the Quakers to take the lead, and eventually the set 25-23. 

SET 2 | The Quakers quickly began to take the lead, which continued for the entirety of the second set. Kills from Ellie Siskin, Adell Murray, Jenna Garner, and Zada Sanger combined with a block from Emery Moore and Adell Murray, created a five point lead for Penn at 8-3, their largest of the match. Penn continued to take the set 25-22 off a kill from Sanger.

SET 3 | Rutgers took an early lead creating an 11-point deficit at 13-4, and continued with that momentum throughout the set. Penn was unable to overcome this shortage

SET 4 | The back and forth of this match continued into the fourth set, with Rutgers and Penn staying within one point of eachother, until a short lived lead from the Scarlett Knights at 17-15. Tied at 20, the Quakers began to pull away, with a four point serving run from Jenna Garner to bring Penn to match point. After a kill from Adell Murray, set by Emery Moore, the Quakers take the match and write this down in history as their first program win against a Big Ten team. 

QUAKER NOTEMEAL
» Penn is now 7-2 overall this season
» Against St. John's, Zada Sanger tallied a season-high 14 kills with 16 points, while Adell Murray tallied a season high 17.5 points
» Against Rutgers, Ellie Siskin had a career high 18 digs, and Jenna Garner had 11 kills, her fifth match of the year with 10+.
» Addison Pollock had 24 digs, her fifth game with 20+ and ninth with 10+ this season. 

UP NEXT
Penn will take on Bryant tomorrow at 2:00pm as the John Kaiser Volleyball Invitational continues.
 
For the latest on Penn volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.