Volleyball undefeated on weekend

The way a team responds to adversity is often a measure of its ability to win a championship. This weekend the Penn volleyball team showed it can overcome difficult situations, compiling a 3-0 record against Harvard, Hartford, and Dartmouth. Going into the weekend, the Quakers (8-6, 3-1 Ivy League) thought their biggest problem would be overcoming a disappointing start to their Ivy schedule in which they lost to Yale before barely beating lowly Brown. But in the third game of the Harvard match, Penn's junior middle blocker, Jen Law, went down with a sprained ankle. The Quakers immediately lost a big presence in the middle and an unquestioned team leader. The match against Harvard had gotten off to a good start, as Penn won the first game 15-10 and took a 14-3 lead in the second game. The tenacious Crimson did not give up, rallying to 14-10 before finally losing the game. The inability of the Quakers to put teams away after taking leads was repeated throughout the weekend. "It's not a good quality to have," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "We gave them momentum going into the third game." Harvard was able to build a 4-2 lead in that third game before Law went down. Law was in the process of having one of her best matches of the year, having already accumulated nine kills in the match. Penn seemed to be shocked by what happened, and proceeded to lose the third game 15-8. Penn relied on three freshmen, Susan Sabatino, Karen Lewis and Jackie Morris to pick up the slack. Penn rallied to take the fourth game 15-8 to close out the match. The Quakers were able to win mainly because they were able to limit the inconsistent play that had plagued them all year. "We cut our errors in half," Feeney said. "They would start coming back and then we would make a big play." Penn followed up its Ivy League win with a 15-11, 15-8, 15-11 defeat of Hartford. The Hawks were quickly dispatched by the Quakers, as freshman Abby Daniels led Penn with 11 kills followed by Sabatino with 10 kills while senior captain Heather Glick had 40 assists in the three games. The Quakers' next opponent was a Dartmouth team that had won eight of its last nine matches. The Big Green is a young, improving team led by the freshman combination of outside hitter Alison McKinley and setter Felicity Kolp. The Quakers, however, remembered the previous Dartmouth teams and had no idea that the match would be the five-game struggle that ensued. The match started off promisingly enough, with the Quakers taking the first game in fairly routine fashion, 15-8. After jumping out to a 7-2 lead in the second game, the Quakers suddenly found themselves down 11-14 and facing game point. Penn fought off five game points in total before pulling out a gutsy 16-14 win. Instead of building off the momentum of their 2-0 lead, Penn was run over by a confident Dartmouth team which took a 9-0 lead on the way to a 15-4 win. The fourth game was much of the same, as Dartmouth won 15-7. McKinley posed a challenge for Penn to stop all match, leading both teams with 17 kills. Penn was able to regroup in the fifth game to close out the match 15-12. "I was comfortable going into the fifth game because of the rally-scoring," Feeney said. "We were doing a good job of siding out, but we weren't winning points on our serve." Feeney was extremely pleased with her team's play. Dartmouth was able to execute its plan of tipping then hitting deep to keep Penn off-balance. But the Quakers were able to win due mainly to the leadership of captains Carol Cit Kovic, who led the team with 21 digs, and Glick. "At times there were four freshmen out there besides Heather and Carol," Feeney said. "That was when our leadership was really needed. Penn now heads into its most important regular season match against Princeton tomorrow night at the Palestra. Although the injury to Law was a setback to Penn, the team that she rejoins will be a stronger and more confident version.