Fun in the sun for Volleyball

Girls lying on California beaches and soaking in the sun while playing a little volleyball. No, this is not a rerun of Baywatch or a Bud Light commercial, but a description of the Penn volleyball team's Fall Break. The Quakers (11-6) had a successful weekend even though they lost all three of their matches. The weekend was not all fun in the sun for Penn. The obviously jetlagged Quakers started out the trip by getting trounced by Sacramento State (16-6) 15-2, 15-5, 15-2. "They were huge and absolutely dominated the match," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "They played really well and were operating on all cylinders." The Quakers initially had trouble adjusting to their bigger and more athletic opponents who play at a much faster tempo. Their were bright spots for Penn, however. Senior middle hitter and California native Jennifer Ott celebrated her return home by recording a .625 hitting percentage. The Quakers as a team managed only a measly .064 mark for the entire match against Sacramento State. In the second match against Saint Mary's (7-13), things only got a little bit better for Penn as it went down 15-5, 15-7, 15-5. This was probably the most disappointing loss for Feeney and the Quakers since the Gaels were 0-5 in their conference and appeared to be the weakest of Penn's foes. The key to the match was again the size disadvantage for the Quakers, as they were outblocked 16-4. "They blocked really effectively," Feeney said, "because they are used to a more varied offense. Our passing was poor, so we could not get a lot of variation in out hitting. This made it a lot easier for them to block." Again, Penn as a team could manage only a .074 hitting percentage while the Gaels hit at a .337 clip. So Penn had lost two matches that were not exactly fiercely contested epic battles and next up was San Francisco (9-13). The Dons had beaten Sacramento State twice this season. Sounds like Penn's chances of winning against San Francisco were almost nonexistent. But no one told Penn that. Although the Quakers played by far their best match of the road trip, they fell just short to the Dons 15-11, 14-16, 10-15, 15-7, 15-7. Despite the loss, Penn won its first two games on a Fall Break road trip – where it always competes against high-quality competition – for the first time in four years. "The San Francisco match was one of the best matches I've seen this team play," Ott said. "In the fourth and fifth game, [San Francisco's] athletic abilities were really the difference," Feeney said. "That's where having scholarship athletes made the difference." One such athlete was Russian import Nadia Kadochnikova, who took over the final "rally score" game with her dominant play at the net. Finally playing a fifth game where every point counts was good experience for the Quakers. On the bright side for Penn, the player of the game had to be Penn senior captain Devon Austin who recorded 21 kills on the afternoon. "Devon and Jen did a great job," Feeney said. "They have really stepped it up and are leading by example as seniors should do. Both are playing the best volleyball in their Penn careers." As a result, the Quakers may now be better than any Penn team in recent memory. "This is the best team we've had in my four years," Ott said. "We have great camaraderie and team chemistry and this team never gives up. A lot of good things came out of this road trip." Feeney felt the same way, even though she expressed mild disappointment that the Quakers could not pull off an upset victory. The best thing about the three matches may be the fact that Penn showed improvement in each of its three contests. This gives the team even more confidence and experience as it heads into a match against Villanova that will decide the Big Five City Series Championship, which the Quakers have not won since 1987. Clearly, it's no longer a day at the beach for the Penn volleyball team.