Volleyball places third at D.C. Tourney

To prepare itself for the upcoming Ivy League schedule, the Penn volleyball team was in Washington, D.C. this weekend. The Quakers participated in the Georgetown Invitational hoping to fine-tune themselves for next week, when Ancient Eight play begins. The Quakers have played some of the strongest teams in the country in hopes of gaining experience and cohesiveness so they will be able knock of Ivy powers such as Princeton and Yale. This past weekend Penn (3-5) came in third in the four-team tournament, as it defeated Lehigh (7-7) but fell to highly touted squads from Georgetown and Cal.-State Fullerton. Penn started off Friday afternoon by falling to CSUF (3-7). The Quakers were decimated by the strong hitting of the Titans, and CSUF dominated because of its well-balanced offensive attack. Titans Heather Bassett, Andrea Bill and Rocki Titen had eight kills each, as they spent most of their afternoon hitting over Penn blockers. The Titans shut out the Quakers 15-8, 15-9, 15-5. Another problem that arose during the game was Penn's inability to stop Titan rallies. There were a few instances when the Quakers could not make a key dig or kill to regain the serve. "It seemed like there were a lot of times when we got in a rut and just couldn't get out of it," Penn co-captain Carol Cit Kovic said. "If someone made a mistake, we weren't able to get it back together. The other teams would score three or four points in a row, and we couldn't fight off the runs and get the serve back." Unfortunately for the Quakers, this pattern carried into its second game of the tournament against Georgetown. The Hoyas (10-5) coming off a mid-week struggle against George Washington in which they fell in five games to the 13th-ranked team in the country were hungry for a victory -- and they made Penn their main course. Led by the hitting of Meghan O'Rourke and Melissa Tytko, Georgetown defeated the Red and the Blue 15-10, 15-13 and 15-8. Despite the loss, there were a number of bright spots for the Quakers. The Penn freshmen showed they would be ready for next week's Ivy League opener. Abigail Adams led the Quakers with nine kills and was complimented by classmates Karen Lewis and Jackie Morris, who each chipped in five. A big reason they are gelling can be attributed to senior co-captain Heather Glick's consistently getting them the ball at the right time. Glick did not sit out one minute the entire weekend, as she was called upon time and again to set the Penn hitters. Against the three opponents, Glick finished the weekend with a gaudy 103 assists continuing her count down towards overtaking Christine Dingivan on her quest to set the Penn record for most career assists. "She is completely running the offense," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "She determines where to set the ball, and who is ready to hit it. She evens determines what the other team's the weaknesses are. She does a lot in between points. Also, she is helping the freshmen progress. They get a lot of confidence from Heather." With her performance, Glick was named to the the all-tournament team. This was the third time in three tournaments she has won such an honor. "I don't really expect it," Glick said. "I don't really look at stats. I take it as a nice surprise. You can only get disappointed if you think about it." Being the main cog in the Quakers' offense, Glick was unsure who would be surrounding her at the beginning of the season. But thanks to the preseason tournaments, Feeney has settled on the line-up that will be called upon to get Quakers' motor running as they travel down the road towards the Ivy League title. "We have a lot of confidence now," Glick said. "We're mentally tough and ready to start the season."