Four straight wins will give Volleyball Ivy crown

Despite an eight-match winning streak, Penn received a sixth seed in the Ivy Tournament at Cornell. It is not often that a No. 6 seed wins the Ivy League volleyball championship. But don't try telling that to Penn. The Quakers arrived in Ithaca, N.Y., yesterday riding high on an eight-game winning streak. After a discouraging midseason loss to Princeton at Jadwin Gymnasium, the Quakers -- with a 10-8 record at that point -- held a closed-door players-only meeting to discuss their frequent mental lapses on the court. "We were out there to have fun, but it wasn't fun to lose," Penn outside hitter K.C. Potter said in October. "We had to change something." Almost immediately after the loss to the Tigers, Penn began turning things around. With a nine-game sweep to win the Marist Invitational that weekend, the Quakers began to show signs of momentum. The next Friday, Penn returned to the Palestra and won a five-game nail-biter from Cornell. And that Saturday, behind a roaring homecoming crowd, Penn conquered Columbia in four games -- as sophomore middle blocker Sue Sabatino recorded a career-best 26 kills. Last weekend, the Quakers defeated Army, Navy and Hofstra to end the regular season at 18-8 mark. It will take Penn just four more wins added to its streak to garner this year's Ivy League title -- an achievement that has alluded Penn since coach Margaret Feeney's first season in 1989. "Winning four additional straight matches will be very challenging under the circumstances," Penn co-captain Jessica Luftman said. "Every team elevates their play during the tournament." Penn finished the regular season in a three-way tie with Harvard and Dartmouth at 4-3. And although the Quakers lost both tie-breakers, demoting them to the No. 6 seed, the Quakers have the luxury of being on the opposite side of the bracket from Princeton. "I think that it will lead to our advantage not to meet Princeton until we get a few rounds in, " Luftman said. "Playing Princeton is sometimes a mental game." In the first round, the Quakers face the No. 3 seeded Brown Bears, who are lead by freshman outside hitter Kathryn Rice and one of the league's premier blockers in Leyla Goldsmith. During the opening week of the Ivy League season, the Bears convincingly defeated the Quakers, 15-9, 15-2, 15-3, at the Palestra. "The first match against Brown was one of the ugliest matches that I witnessed in my seven years," Feeney said. "The two areas that we did not perform well in the first time we played Brown was serve reception and blocking." The Quakers are convinced, however, that they have since corrected the defensive flaws that made them vulnerable to the Bears attack. Since midseason, Luftman has been as consistent as any outside hitter in the Ivy League with serve receptions. Middle blockers Sue Sabatino, Jen Law and Kate Lewis have similarly stepped up their play since the opening-week los. "We are planning on blocking them much better than we did in the first match," Quakers setter Heather Tillett said. "Their tendency is to hit cross-court. If we can cut that off, they are done after that." A strong performance from Sabatino -- who averages a third more blocks per game (1.46) than any other player in the Ivy League -- is key for Penn. If the Quakers can stop Brown, they will play a second match this evening against the winner of No. 2 Yale and host Cornell, two teams that Penn has already beaten this season. If Penn loses, however, it will wait until tomorrow to face the loser of Princeton-Columbia, which in all likelihood will be the 0-7 Lions. As in recent years, No. 1 seed Princeton enters the Ivy League tournament as the favorite. But unlike past seasons, this year's tournament is not all about playing for second place. Penn has run eight straight and seems prepared for redemption against the Tigers. Princeton, however, may not even be around if the Quakers advance to the finals. Harvard and Dartmouth beat the Tigers during the regular season. Yale and Brown played them tough. Cornell has the home-court advantage in its favor. An Ivy League championship will be just as sweet for the Quakers even if they do not rematch Princeton. "We just want to win the Ivy League tournament. We always want to beat Princeton because we have a huge rivalry with them," Tillett said. "We hate Princeton, but if we win we will be just as happy, no matter who we play."

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