Volleyball inconsistent in 1-2 weekend at Penn Invit.

The only constant for the Penn volleyball team as it opened its season at the Palestra over the weekend was inconsistency. The Quakers started their 1993 campaign by going 1-2 in the Penn Invitational. After a 3-0 trouncing of the Buffalo Bulls (1-2) on Friday evening, Penn was shutout by an overpowering Providence squad before losing its focus and a 3-0 decision to the Fightin' Blue Hens of Delaware. The Friars, the defending Big East champions, (3-0 on the weekend, 6-2 overall) won the tournament by taking advantage of tremendous blocking that resulted from their dominant height in the frontline. Providence also received impressive setting from all-tournament junior setter Marnie Panek. "Our blocking was definitely the key," Friar coach Dick Bagge said. "Not necessarily on knocking balls to the floor, but we got lots of deflections that helped us set up our offense." The Quakers started out the season with an impressive all-around performance against Buffalo. Sophomore Heather Glick, last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, led Penn to a convincing 15-13, 15-11, 15-12 win by contributing 34 assists and recording a 80-percent hitting percentage. Senior captain Devon Austin pounded out 12 kills while sophomore Carol Cit Kovic supplied superb defense with four blocks and nine digs. Saturday's matches illustrated the Quakers inexperience and lack of match play at this early point in the season. Providence used its height and attacking style to keep Penn on the defensive throughout the match. The Quakers committed an array of serving and hitting errors that led to a negative hitting percentage and a 15-5, 15-11, 15-13 loss at the hands of the Friars. "They're big and athletic," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "They go 6-foot plus all the way around. We were forced to change up our rotations because they had a huge mismatch against our 5-4 setter. "We also made lots of serving errors at critical times in the match and we were not communicating well at all. That's something that's an individual responsibility. We just haven't gelled yet." In addition to the serving errors and poor hitting all the way around, Glick, an all-tournament selection, only produced 22 assists against Providence in three games. Setters should normally produce at least 10 assists per game. "We expected to have some problems with Providence," Austin said. "But we just didn't play well. We never pulled it together and we broke down defensively." Unfortunately for the Quakers, bad times only got worse. After the disappointing loss to Providence that ended Penn's hoping of winning the Invitational, the Quakers played a flat and uninspired match against a Delaware team that had lost both its previous contests during the weekend. "The competition was excellent throughout the tournament," Delaware assistant coach Traci Marr said. "We managed to play much better defense against Penn and picked up a lot of balls that we hadn't been getting." "We just never got into the match," Feeney said. "We were totally flat." It may have been a totally flat match for the Quakers, but it wasn't a totally flat weekend. Freshman hitter Alexis Usnick had seven kills in just two games. Freshman middle blocker Jennifer Law also turned in a good performance on the weekend with five blocks. But despite these strong performances, Feeney was not pleased with her team's overall effort on the weekend. "Losing to Delaware in three games was very disappointing for us," Feeney said. "Certainly, if this continues we'll have to instill some punishment. This team may look like the track team this week." Although it was a disappointing weekend for the Quakers, there are clearly reasons to be optimistic. Offensively, Austin recorded 23 kills while junior defensive specialist Hallie Ben-Horin dug up 22 balls. "I think we have the talent, but we have to start limiting our errors," Feeney said. "We need to start beating these big schools. Right now, I'm only happy with about one in three balls." Unfortunately for Penn, the bright spots were far outnumbered by mental errors and breakdowns in communication. The Quakers will have to eliminate the lapses of inconsistency that occurred this weekend if they are going to become a consistent volleyball team that is capable of not only winning in the Ivies, but against strong out of conference foes as well.