Vball looks to extend streak to five

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sounds like simple advice, doesn't it? Well it is, and if the Penn volleyball team follows it, they should be in position to pick up at least one win tonight when they face city rivals La Salle (5 p.m.) and Temple (7 p.m.) in a pair of Big 5 matches at the Palestra. The Quakers (5-2) come into tonight's action on a roll. They have won four in a row, winning at Lafayette and then beating Canisius, Boston College and Navy to win the Quaker Classic last weekend at home. The team has established that it can win, and is determined to keep proving just that. "We're starting to play a lot better than we were early in the season," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "We've made a step in the right direction and we're confident we can win. Being confident is half the battle." Penn is winning because it seems to have corrected the problems that were evident at the start of the season. For one thing, the Quakers are working more as a cohesive unit and less as individuals. "Things have just turned around completely," sophomore setter Heather Glick said. "We worked together last weekend more than we did all of last year – everything is just clicking." The improved teamwork has certainly helped to get things clicking, but a key has also been the decrease in mental lapses and careless mistakes. "We needed to work on some things in practice," Feeney said. "The fundamental errors and unforced errors must go down, and they have. We're trying to limit each [opposing] server to one point – we want to force teams to get side outs before every point they win off us." Another crucial factor in the Quakers' recent success has been Feeney's ability to use a large number of players and keep all of them fresh. Outstanding performances have been turned in lately by Glick, seniors Jennifer Ott and captain Devon Austin and junior Hallie Ben-Horin. But everyone has chipped in. This trend could play a role once again tonight, as the Ivy League limit of 18 playing dates has forced Penn to schedule both City Series matches for tonight. "To be able to be confident using 11 players is important," Feeney said. "They're all unselfish – they all know they're going to get to play and contribute. It doesn't matter to them who starts and who doesn't. It says a lot about the team." Penn has to continue to do all of these things tonight if it wants to keep the wins coming. But that may be easier said than done. The Explorers (7-4) are a young team that, like Penn, has recently started to gel. The team is clearly led by junior co-captain Mary Costigan. But coach Jon Kunzier has been pleased with the squad as a whole. "We're about where I'd hoped we would be at this point in the year," Kunzier said. "We're starting to establish that we're a good team – we want to be over .500, but more importantly we want to play everyone tough and be in every match." One thing working in the Quakers' favor may be the inconsistency that Kunzier knows has plagued La Salle all season. "Sometimes I don't know which team is going to show up for a given match," he said. "We don't always communicate well and sometimes we'll let some balls drop that shouldn't." Penn would indeed be wise to take advantage of these inconsistent tendencies by getting out of the gate quickly against the Explorers. In fact, the Quakers are 5-0 when they win the first game and 0-2 when they don't. And this pattern clearly hasn't eluded Feeney. "We'd definitely like to get off to a good start in both matches," she said. "But we can't even think about Temple until we're done with La Salle." When the Quakers do start thinking about Temple, they'll have to change gears, as tonight's two opponents play contrasting styles. The Owls are known to play a much more up-tempo game and are more likely to put pressure on Penn's defense. "La Salle is going to run a slower offense, while Temple is going to pass the ball up as quickly as possible," Feeney explained. "It's definitely going to be two different matches." Two different matches that Penn certainly can win, that is. "We need to work together, have positive attitudes and be competitive," Glick said. "We've been working really hard and we basically need to keep doing what we've been doing."