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NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- The Penn volleyball team knew it had a stellar defense, but the Quakers were still searching for a sparkplug on the other side of the net. Last weekend at the Rutgers Invitational, Penn's newly found offense enabled it to steamroll through the tournament. The Quakers defeated Wagner, St. John's and Rutgers to take first at the invitational. From the instant Wagner walked onto the court of the College Avenue Gymnasium, Penn put on one of its most dominating offensive displays in recent memory. "I think we have a fighting experience we've never had before," junior co-captain Heather Glick said. "We're more together than we've ever been. We're totally in rhythm." Penn set the tone early with an easy first-set victory en route to a 15-5, 15-3, 15-3 win. With sophomore Jennifer Law and freshman Sue Pojedinec dominating the net against a much smaller Seahawks team, any offensive attempt by Wagner was quickly put down -- that's if the Seahawks were able to get a hit off in the first place. With the combination of short and hard Quaker serves, along with the sheer ineptness of the Seahawks to set to Michele Pasqualetto, Wagner simply exhausted any means with which to score. This coincided with Penn's tremendous physical advantage, which allowed the Quakers to swing with more authority without having to be too concerned with the blockers. When victory became apparent -- toward the middle of the second set -- Penn was able to put in freshmen Heather Tillet and Tracey Frasch so they could get their first match experience. After quickly forgetting about a hands violation the first time she attempted to set the ball, Tillet showed why she represents the promising young crop of Quaker talent. She regrouped to dig out a spike by Wagner's Karey Fitzgerald, which was undoubtedly the best hit the inside hitter had all day. She then followed that up with tremendous serving and key blocking that forced a side-out which led to the end of the second set. Frasch definitely left an impression as well, and the impression was on Pasqualetto's sternum. Maybe it was the adrenaline of playing for the first time all season, but off of a perfect Glick set, Frosch wound up her right arm and drilled the ball right into the would-be digger, making her stagger back three steps. "My first impression was that I was just really nervous," Frosch said. "So right now I'm just looking forward to more playing time." That wasn't the only display of power. Earlier in the set when Wagner's Natina Saittawent went up for a kill, Frasch authoritatively stuffed the ball with two hands. The freshmen also benefited from the play of their captain, Glick. Her setting was impeccable, and aided by perfect passes, the all-tournament team member was able to put the ball anywhere she wanted. She was also able to score numerous times by setting the ball over, which clearly kept all three teams off balance. "We were able to do a lot of different play sets, and since the passing was good, we got a lot of quick sets," Glick said. "Everyone is ready, when I'm on the court I have confidence in everyone's ability." But perhaps the finest individual performance was turned in by freshman Sue Pojedinec, who was put in against Rutgers to shut down the Scarlet Knights' powerful outside hitter Jennifer Prosek. Penn won the match against Rutgers, 15-4, 15-5, 15-9. The Quakers beat St. John's, 15-9, 14-16, 15-9, 15-7. Pojedinec's presence at the net took Prosek, who was named tournament MVP, out of her game. And fittingly, Pojedinec's powerful kill in the third set promptly ended the match, and the tournament. Prosek's lack of productivity was also attributed to Penn's tremendous serving. The Quakers totalled a gaudy nine aces. "Our whole plan was to take Prosek out of the game," coach Margaret Feeney said, "so the fact that our offense stepped forward definitely meant that they couldn't get the ball to her because they were scrambling." Penn's opposition was scrambling to keep pace with the Quakers' new-found offense.

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