Inconsistent break for Volleyball

It may appear that Penn has only one volleyball team. The truth, however, is that on any given night, you don't know which team will show up. There's the team that is very capable of winning the Ivy League title -- the Quakers who won the school's first-ever match in California. That's the same Red and Blue squad that opened the season with three impressive victories in its first four matches, the team that came to the Palestra and sent Harvard (10-9, 3-1 Ivy League) back to Cambridge hanging its heads on Saturday. Then, there are the Quakers who make coach Kerry Major think that a championship is little more than a future dream -- the Penn team that disappointed in its opening Ivy weekend at Brown and Yale. These are the Quakers who utterly collapsed on Friday night against Dartmouth (8-11, 2-2). That same Friday night, the Crimson were busy in Old Nassau, handing Princeton (14-4, 3-1) its first 3-0 loss of the season to claim the top spot in the Ancient Eight standings. "We beat Princeton in three and we played fantastic," Harvard coach Jennifer Weiss said. "[But Penn] played great ball and we didn't adjust to them." The Crimson came to the Palestra on a roll and it appeared that their good fortunes would continue as Harvard took the first game from the Red and Blue 15-7. "We came out a little bit flat," Major said. "And I said that we are not going to beat Harvard like this, this isn't a winning team. And they decided to do it." Did they ever. Stephanie Horan had a monstrous match for Penn (10-9, 1-3), tallying season highs with 24 kills and 19 digs. Together with her nine-kill, 13-dig performance against Dartmouth the previous night, Horan earned honors as Ivy League Player of the Week. "It's a good feeling," Horan said. "But it's not like you're thinking about it while you're out there, going, 'Oh, one kill closer to Ivy League Player of the Week,' or anything like that, but it's a nice feeling." Penn freshman Michelle Kliszewski was also very impressive, equaling Horan's 19 digs to go with eight kills of her own. The Horan and Kliszewski show continued last night as the host Quakers defeated Long Island 3-0. Horan tallied 11 more kills and 18 digs against the Blackbirds, while Kliszewski ripped 17 kills to go with her 13 digs. "The team's played better as a whole," Kliszewski said. "And when the team plays better, individuals play better." LIU, however gave the Quakers some trouble. Though the Blackbirds played a very sloppy match and were clearly not as talented as Penn, LIU was gritty and refused to die, especially in the third game. The Blackbirds were down 13-8 in the match's final game and recorded six straight sideouts. But they committed four very untimely service errors and allowed Penn to get to match point. LIU saved that match point twice in one rally, denying strong attempts by Kliszewski and Kelly Szczerba. After the Blackbirds cut the lead to 14-10, K.C. Potter, who had not played at all up to that point, stepped off the bench, notched the kill for the sideout and then served out the match. Potter was also Penn's greatest bright spot on Friday night in an exciting match that resulted in a 3-0 loss to Dartmouth, as she racked up a team-high 11 kills and 16 digs. The Quakers' match with the Big Green was exciting because both teams were very streaky. In the first game, Dartmouth raced to an 8-1 lead as Jordan Schmidt served seven straight points. Penn then took nine of the next 13 before the Big Green put the game away 15-10. "When Jordan is serving, that's our strongest front row," Dartmouth coach Ann Marie Larese said. "We score a lot of points in that rotation." The second game was close, but Dartmouth held an 11-7 lead and it looked like they might be ready to dispose of the Quakers. But Potter sparked a rally for seven Penn points and the Quakers had a game point. And that's when the roof fell in on the Quakers. After Janna Merryfield's kill made it 14-12, Penn made physical and mental errors, including a save of a ball that was going out on Dartmouth's game point to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Penn still had a chance in the third game, when they trailed 6-4 early on. But after Schmidt got the ball to serve, Penn would never get another sideout. The Quakers came close to one at 13-4 but Merryfield's dig led to Ashley Dean's 10th kill. Merryfield was just getting warmed up -- she had a Dartmouth record 33 kills on Saturday against Princeton. Schmidt made sure that she had no more work to do on Friday, though, posting an ace to close the match. While the Quakers could have folded their tent after losing to Dartmouth, they rallied to beat Harvard and LIU. Penn's win last night, however, was marred by an ankle injury to senior co-captain Karin Witte, whose status is uncertain for Friday's match against Princeton.

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