Volleyball stuffed in home opener by Scarlet Knights

A come-from-behind first-game win for Rutgers took the wind out of Penn's sails at the Palestra. A come-from-behind first-game win for Rutgers took the wind out of Penn's sails at the Palestra. Nobody said that building a championship team would be easy. Last night at the Palestra, the Penn volleyball team had its first true taste of adversity, losing its home opener to Rutgers in three games. "I think it let us down [to lose the first game]," Penn sophomore Stephanie Horan said. "But that's part of the game, and it's going to happen whether it's a big point that you lose or a game that you lose. You just have to come back from that, and that's something our team has to work on. But we'll definitely get past that. We can do it." The Quakers had a chance early on against the Scarlet Knights (3-5), but had trouble cashing in on the opportunity. Penn raced to a 4-0 lead on freshman Shayna Higa's serve, which included the first of her three aces on the night, but Rutgers quickly came back to tie the score 5-5. "They definitely shook us up in the first game," said Rutgers junior Kera Carter, who led all players with 18 kills. "We didn't come out as hard as we should have." Rutgers made 15 errors in the first game, and those errors helped Penn to take a 10-7 lead. When the Scarlet Knights scored five points to take a 12-10 lead, Penn needed a clutch play. After a long rally gave the Quakers their 11th point of the game, senior K.C. Potter stepped up and registered perhaps the biggest of her seven kills to tie the score. After calling a timeout, Rutgers captured a sideout. After three more solid rallies and one of Kelly Szczerba's Penn-leading 11 kills resulted in sideouts, Penn regained the lead, 13-12, on Kristel Weaver's serve. Rutgers, however, would not be denied, scoring three points on its next three serves to take the first game. "If we could have pulled out that first game, then we maybe wouldn't have lost our confidence," Penn coach Kerry Major said. "We didn't finish them off when we had the chance and they were down, and that gave them confidence, so they played at a higher level." With the Quakers clearly rattled, the Scarlet Knights capitalized. Carter opened the second game with an ace, and Rutgers quickly took a 3-1 lead. "Kera's been a go-to player all year," Rutgers coach Anne Leonard-House said. "She hasn't had a bad match yet. She makes very smart decisions." The Quakers seemed to have a response, winning the first point on Horan's next serve, but after two more serves by Rutgers, Penn trailed 6-1 and called timeout. The timeout didn't help the Quakers, though. Rutgers extended its lead even more, reaching an 11-2 margin at one point. Despite the Scarlet Knights' momentum, Major decided that it would be better to not call another timeout and let the Red and Blue players sort things out for themselves. "One thing we learned tonight was how we have to communicate more together," Horan said. "That first game we really played even with them, but [after losing it] we just have to learn how to step it up for the next game and come back. We picked it up in the third game, but that's what we needed to do for all the games." Rutgers completed its 15-5 demolition of Penn in the second game and it appeared that the third game would be similar, as the Scarlet Knights raced to another 6-1 lead. Again, Major did not call a time-out, and this time, Penn was able to respond. The Quakers scored four points on their next two serves to cut the Rutgers lead to just one. "I wanted them to work it out for themselves," Major said. "Confidence is something that can only come from within -- I can't just tell them 'you're awesome.' It's good that we got it back by the third game." The Scarlet Knights, however, were simply too much for Penn. Rutgers hit at a .476 clip in the third game, making just three errors to go with 23 kills; Penn made six errors in the third game alongside their 14 kills. When Higa's ace brought Penn within four at 11-7, there was still some hope for the Quakers -- but it was not to be. "They were a very well-rounded team," Major said. "When you're outsized like that at every position, it's tough. A team like that is tough to beat." Still, the Scarlet Knights, who came to Philadelphia fearing the city's traffic more than they did their opponents, left with some more respect for the team that they faced last night. "They did a good job being a scrappy team on the floor," Leonard-House said. "It looks like they're going to have a great defense."