Volleyball 'kills' SHU in a sweep

The Penn volleyball team had a dominating 45.5 kill percentage in game No. 3, a 15-3 win. Since Quakers do not fast on Yom Kippur, the Penn women's volleyball team was only too happy to gobble up Division II opponent Sacred Heart 3-0 last night at the Palestra. The Pioneers (1-6) are in the grey area between an NCAA Division II team and a Division I team, and according to Pioneers coach Scott Carter are playing a "50-50 schedule" this year. "Along with La Salle, Penn was one of the top teams we have played so far," Carter said. "We are still moving up to their level and so it was a definite challenge to come here and play Penn." After a sluggish 15-11 victory in the first game, Penn (3-5) gradually began to dominate with more crisp passing and accurately placed kills. "We had a shorter opposite side player in the first game so they hit us across the court in the first game," Carter said. "We adjusted by shifting our middle blocker back to the line, but by doing that we gave up height up front and then they were able to hit down the line easier." Freshman hitter Stephanie Horan and senior middle blocker Sue Sabatino combined for 11 points in the third game (including service winners and kills) as the Quakers rolled 15-3 to close out the match. Sabatino, Kristel Weaver and junior transfer Angie Whittenburg were Penn's most accurate hitters, recording kill percentages of .438, .455 and .500 respectively. "They ran a slower offense than we were used to, so we had to try and pick up the pace to our style," Whittenburg said. "We were able to stay disciplined, handle their roll shots, and convert them into shots we wanted." The tempo of the match was slower than normal for Penn since the Pioneers are still adapting to a faster style transition game put in by Carter. "Last year, our setters would loft the ball high and that slowed the offense a lot," Carter said. "I am trying to implement an offense where the initial shot and set are lower and more direct. Eventually, that will speed up the level of our game to the point where we can be more competitive with Division I opposition." Penn is in somewhat of a transition phase itself, with new coach Kerry Major stressing speed as well. "We have a much faster offense from last year," Major said. "I think we have players who are capable of handling faster sets and play calls so its just a matter of time and practice." The buzzword for the Quakers this week has been passing and they did that relatively well against Sacred Heart. Other than one instance in the third game where the set and the kill were not coordinated, the Quakers functioned like clockwork. They raced to a 10-1 lead powered largely by freshmen Kelly Sczezerba and Horan. Impressive about the Quakers' performance was that despite the absence of primary setter Jodie Antypas, there was little faltering in the offense or in transition. Setters Kristen Stine and Amy Schutte filled in well for the Red and Blue, combining for all but one of Penn's 28 attempted set shots. "I used the backup setters today because I wanted them to get on the court and be active," Major said. "It's always difficult to get used to a change in setters, but [Stine and Schutte] were great." The biggest testament to the capable job done by Stine and Schutte was that all of Penn's power hitters had high kill percentages. The Quakers as a team improved from a .111 kill percentage in the first game to .455 in the third and final game. "We played more aggressively in the third game," Horan said. "I still felt that there was a slow quality to the whole match, but I was happy with our passing and consistency." More importantly, however, Penn was able to dispose of Sacred Heart within one hour 25 minutes. That gave everyone involved more time to spend contemplating the just concluded high holiday.

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