Volleyball wins first, then drops last two

The Penn volleyball team ended its season this past weekend with tears of pain, joy and sadness. The Quakers (11-14) traveled to New Haven, Conn., to play in the Ivy League Championship Tournament, competing in a double-elimination format. Penn played a total of three matches, two against third-seeded Dartmouth and one against No. 2 Princeton, the eventual winner. Friday, Penn faced Dartmouth (20-9), a team that defeated Penn in straight sets less than a month ago. Going into the match, the Quakers had a key injury to take into account. Senior outside hitter Jessica Luftman turned her ankle during the pre-game warm-up, but fought through the pain to contribute to Penn's win, 10-15, 15-9, 15-12, 15-5. "She shouldn't have [played], but she did. She played that entire match, and it was the best match of her life," said freshman middle blocker Diana Meek. "But after that [her ankle] was so swollen and so sore she couldn't play the rest of the tournament." Luftman played the entire game, despite her injured ankle. She led the team with 22 digs, and also had a .296 kill percentage. "I think it [Luftman's game] was pretty good but that was because of my ankle," said Luftman. "Because I had to do everything I could to focus on volleyball. I couldn't think about my ankle since it was driving me crazy," Four Penn players produced double-digits in kills, leading the team to 63, one of the highest totals of the tournament. Junior middle blockers Sue Sabatino and Karen Lewis had 15 and 13 kills, respectively. Luftman and sophomore Angie Whittenburg added 10 kills each. Senior captain setter Heather Tillett had 48 assists during the game. The two seniors, Tillett and Luftman, finished the last win of the Quakers' season in style, as Tillett set for Luftman, who produced a kill to win the first match of the tournament. The Quakers faced Princeton later that day with mixed emotions. Penn had the only upset of the first round, but had lost a valuable player in the process. "The first game, we were so psyched up to play [Dartmouth]. And that game took so much out of us that the rest of the weekend was a lot, lot, lot harder -- emotionally and physically," said Tillett. "In combination with Jessica being hurt and not being able to play, I think that was a big loss. Because without her passing and court presence we were really weakened a lot." During the Princeton match, Luftman's absence was felt, as the Quakers were only able to come up with 23 digs. Offensively, Penn could only produce .078 kill percentage, which was not enough to dent Princeton, which won, 15-13, 15-4, 15-5. "I think it definitely made a difference that Jessica wasn't there because you prepare a style of play. And it's hard when you're used to one player, and then you have to get used to another," Sabatino said. Since the tournament was double-elimination the Quakers had another game to play. Once again Penn faced Dartmouth, but this time it ended in a 15-9, 15-9, 15-5, loss and elimination from the tournament. "Even though we lost against Dartmouth, we were still playing really well," Meek said. "It wasn't like they just came out and skunked us, they had to fight for it to get it from us." For the two seniors, this was the last match of their careers, bringing out many mixed emotions. "It is a bittersweet feeling," Tillett said. "We (Luftman and Tillett) would look at the score of that last Dartmouth game as our volleyball careers ticking down. That third game, point by point, our careers were just ticking down. At the end you are feeling so many different emotions."