Volleyball won't face hosts at Yale Tourney

Rules prohibit two Ivy League teams to face each other in an in-season tournament, so Penn won't face Yale. Tiger, Tiger burning bright. Penn and Princeton set to fight. Three tune-ups in New Haven first. It stalls the Ivy Tournament. -- Adaptation of William Blake's The Tiger (1794) The Penn volleyball team (7-13 overall, 2-5 Ivy League) will face Princeton in the first round of the Ivy League Tournament at Brown on November 13. Before they travel to Providence, though, the Quakers will head to New Haven for the Yale Tournament. The Red and Blue will face Manhattan (9-22), Bucknell (12-8) and Colgate in less than twenty-four hours. For the Quakers, to paraphrase a Mike Myers character from Saturday Night Live, the Yale Tournament is neither Yale, nor a tournament. It is not Yale for the Quakers because the event's schedule clearly states what this weekend is --Manhattan, Bucknell and Colgate. Ivy League teams, as in any other athletic conference, cannot play against each other at in-season tournaments. So, what's wrong with getting a few teams together in New Haven in early November to play some pre-scheduled volleyball and calling it a tournament? Plenty. The end of the regular season should be pressure-packed and full of intensity, with teams jockeying for seeds in the Ivy League Tournament. That happened last weekend at the Palestra, as the Quakers "turned a corner," in the words of Penn coach Kerry Major, beating Cornell and Columbia to avoid a winless Ivy League season and a first-round date with Brown at the Ivy Tournament. So, this week, the final one of the regular season, is a warm-up for the post-season. The Quakers lost their first tune-up on Tuesday to a very strong Rutgers team, but the result was unimportant. "We increased our defense, and we played well against a tough team," Major said. "We took care of a lot of blocking problems. Those, [not as much as winning the match] were our goals, and we accomplished them." The tune-ups at Yale will be somewhat easier, and having three more games will give Major a chance to experiment a bit so that Penn can have the best possible lineup on the floor against Princeton. "We'll use a lot of hitters, and we'll change lineups a lot," Major said. "Our goal is the Ivy League Tournament. We lost to Princeton pretty bad earlier, but we're going to be looking at using some different lineups from that match." Penn may have been beaten by Princeton, but that loss was part of the Quakers' seven-game October losing streak. Just before that slide, though, the Red and Blue beat Colgate, who beat the Tigers. Since their focus is really on Princeton, the Quakers are not concerned about a revenge factor from Colgate. "Colgate will be focused, since we sort of blew them out," Major said. "They did beat Princeton, so I think that they're about the same level as any Ivy League team, maybe a little stronger." In addition to improved defensive consistency, the Quakers will look to maintain their performance on the offensive side. If they play complete volleyball, Penn could make some headway this weekend in New Haven. "So long as we take care of [defense], passing, and serving, we'll put 'em away," Major said. "Our focus is still the Ivies. Who could care less about Bucknell or Colgate at this point of the season? We're just going to play strong. If we win, that's even better." If they win in Providence in a week, better still.