Volleyball sees Ivy League action

For two weeks, the Penn volleyball team has been on the road. This weekend, they return to the Palestra to face Ivy League rivals Dartmouth and Harvard, two of the top teams in the conference. Coming off a weekend in which they dropped matches to Cal State-Fullerton and UC-Irvine, both in straight sets, the Quakers (5-8, 1-2 Ivy League) resume their conference season against Dartmouth (15-2, 2-0) tonight at 7 p.m. at the Palestra. "We had a great California visit," Quakers coach Margaret Feeney said. "We saw a lot of alumni and West Coast parents. It was more like a team vacation with two matches thrown in." "I am really excited to get back into it and play the other Ivy teams," said Penn junior middle blocker Sue Sabatino, who currently leads the Ivy League in blocks, averaging 1.52 per game. Feeney noted the Quakers took a number of lessons from their recent non-conference losses. She believes their defense and serving have improved, but Penn still must work on outside hitting. "We hope the confidence will carry over into this weekend, and we'll be aggressive and ready to go," Feeney said. "We must be confident and focused on every point." Feeney expects the two weekend matches to be competitive. Dartmouth and Harvard (9-5, 2-0) stand at the top of the Ivy standings. "They are two teams that are playing very good volleyball," she said. "But we've been playing some good out-of-conference programs and at 1-2, we're still right there and we're pretty confident." After facing the Big Green tonight, the Quakers will play Harvard at 4 p.m. tomorrow. Harvard was shut out by Brown, a team the Quakers have defeated earlier in the season in a non-Ivy League tournament. A key to stopping Harvard will be controlling Elissa Hart, who earned first team All-Ivy honors last season and is now leading the conference in kill percentage (.327).