Volleyball visits New England Ivies

A well-rested Penn volleyball team, still in search of its first Ivy League win, heads to New England this weekend to play Dartmouth tonight and Harvard tomorrow. For the first time in four weeks, the Penn volleyball team did not have a match during the middle of the week, giving the Quakers ample time to practice for the weekend matches. After being swept by Princeton, Brown and Yale in their last three matches, the Quakers welcomed the much-needed time off. Penn (5-8, 0-2 Ivy League) will need to be well-prepared for its first match of the weekend against Dartmouth (11-2, 2-0). The Big Green are riding a school record 10-game winning streak into tonight's match. Dartmouth's 10th consecutive win, which broke the previous record set in 1996, came against Cornell last Saturday when they swept the Big Red 3-0. "Our key to success has been team focus," Dartmouth junior outside hitter Janna Merryfield said. "Everyone on the court is always thinking the same thing." Not only have they been winning, but the Big Green have been winning with ease. Dartmouth has lost only two games in its last six matches, winning both Ivy League matches 3-0 -- including a 53-minute trashing of Columbia. Like every other Ivy League team, Dartmouth is facing the Quakers for the first time in the Kerry Major era. "We're really not sure what to expect," Merryfield said. "We're expecting to have to adjust, as you always do when playing a coach for the first time. In practice, we've worked a lot on smart hitting and playing as a defense that never gives up." Dartmouth is led by senior outside hitter Emily Hallenbeck, who registered 21 kills last weekend at Columbia and Cornell. Merryfield added 13 kills and two aces in the Big Green's two victories. Saturday afternoon, the Quakers will play at Harvard, another undefeated Ivy League foe. Harvard (5-13, 2-0) struggled early in the season, losing five games entering Ivy League play, but like Dartmouth, the Crimson won both of its matches last weekend. "We lost the first game against Cornell, but we got our confidence back and that carried us through the weekend," said senior co-captain Melissa Forcum. Forcum is Harvard's biggest impact player. Last Friday she recorded a career-high 23 kills in the Crimson's 3-2 win over Cornell. The following day, Forcum had a 15-kill performance at Columbia, putting her over the 1,000 kill plateau for her career. "It's an exciting accomplishment, but it's just numbers," Forcum said. "I'm more concerned with winning the Ivy League matches this weekend." Playing on the road, the Red and Blue will be hard-pressed to earn their first Ivy League victory of the season. Penn hopes to regain the form they showed before entering action against the Ancient Eight and shut down red-hot Dartmouth and the Forcum-led Crimson.

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