Host Quakers tie for first place at Penn Invitational

After losing first match to Navy, Penn rallies to beat Lafayette, VCU There were two roads the Penn volleyball team could have taken to finish in a three-way tie for first place at this weekend's Penn Invitational. The easy road would have been to defeat Navy on Friday and win just one out of two against Lafayette and Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday. But after faltering late in the match against the Midshipmen, the Quakers were forced to take the tougher road -- which meant victories over the Leopards and Rams on Saturday. On Friday evening, it appeared as if Navy was going to just hand Penn a victory as the Midshipmen's star outside hitter, Jen Williams, went down late in the third game with a sprained knee. But Penn missed several chances to close out Navy and exited the Palestra on Friday night with a disappointing 0-1 record in the tournament. After splitting the first four games, Penn took a 10-9 lead in the fifth behind six service points by outside hitter Katy Stock. The rarely used sophomore was inserted by Penn coach Margaret Feeney to take advantage of her powerful serves. But after a Midshipmen timeout, Navy stepped up its play another level, and the Quakers could not keep pace. When Stock was unable to dig a Rachel Shopra kill over the net, the Midshipmen rejoiced in a five-game victory over the Quakers (9-15, 15-12, 15-11, 5-15, 15-12). "It was not the opponents that beat us tonight," Penn co-captain Jessica Luftman said. "It was ourselves, and we have to work on that." Penn's versatile front-line attack gave Navy fits all match. Four Quakers -- Sue Sabatino, Abby Daniels, Jessica Luftman and Karen Lewis -- finished the five-game match with double-figure kills. But the Midshipmen pulled away late in game five, behind Navy's Laura Tillinghast's three-point serving rally and setter Nikki St. Clair's picturesque control of the offense. "We are a very mentally disciplined team -- much more so than any civilian college," Tillinghast said. "After a loss like [game four], we just put it out of our minds." On Saturday morning -- after a Navy loss to VCU -- the Quakers returned to the Palestra and showed Tillinghast that their 'civilian college' did indeed have the toughness to rebound from a loss and grab a share of the Penn Invite title. Penn won its early match against Lafayette (15-10, 15-7, 15-7) behind Abby Daniels's 12 kills and an astounding team-kill percentage of .209. Feeney worked 13 of the 16 Quakers into the lineup against the Leopards and got unexpected contributions from sophomores Jackie Morris, who was five of six on kill attempts, and Sue Pojednic, who was all-over the court on offense. "We had the big Mo," Luftman said. The victory set the stage for a 6 p.m. showdown against the Rams, which proved to be the Quakers' most impressive performance of the season. Needing a victory to earn a piece of the Invite title, Penn struggled, but won the opener, 15-13. In the final two games, however, the Quakers were as perfect as Heather Tillett's 24-for-24 set percentage. The Quakers battered the Rams, 15-5 and 15-3, with perfect execution and a mental toughness not exhibited against Navy. Daniels led the way for Penn with 11 kills. But it may have been the thunderous force behind Sabatino's six kills that took the hearts out of the Rams. And Jen Law showed signs of returning to her 1995 all-Ivy form, coming off the bench to chip in with nine kills. The defense was equally solid -- a cohesive unit anchored by defensive specialist Meghan McKay's 10 digs. It was rare that the Rams even blocked the ball to the back line because Law, Sabatino and Karen Kinsherf repeatedly blocked weak Virginia Commonwealth shots back over the net. In the end, maybe Friday's loss was good for Penn, even though the facial expressions of the team members showed clear disappointment in the performance. The Quakers were forced to take the more difficult road to victory, and it made them tougher as a team.

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