Volleyball tunes up for Ivy League season with victory over Lafayette

The Quakers swept the Leopards to improve to 11-1 all tim against Lafayette. The Penn volleyball team had a lot of work to do on Friday night in its match at Lafayette. In their last match before Ivy League play, the Quakers accomplished some of their goals, but still must make progress this week in practice before they head to Brown this Friday. The Quakers (8-6) won a fairly easy 3-0 decision from the Leopards at the Kirby Sports Center but once again did not play their best early in the match. Penn won the first two games by 15-11 scores before cruising to a 15-1 rout in the third game. "Again, we didn't quite start as well as we wanted to, but we [did get] into our game," Penn freshman Kai Gonsorowski said. "We just need to keep working on how we approach each match. When we play tougher teams, we won't be able to start like that and come out the winner, so we need to work on it a little more." Penn did make progress, however, by not losing either of the first two games to the Leopards (1-14) as they did against weaker Towson and Drexel squads a week ago in 3-1 triumphs at the Palestra. Aside from making strides with how they start matches, the Quakers wanted to use their entire roster in Easton, Pa. Every member of the Red and Blue did play, except for Jodie Antypas, who was sidelined with a sprained thumb, and K.C. Potter and Rachel Scherer, who were ill. "It taught us that regardless of the lineup, we can play well and win," said Penn freshman Michelle Kliszewski, who had three aces and six digs against Lafayette. "It showed our depth a lot." Because everyone on the Quakers saw action, the match was not filled with gaudy statistics for Penn, as nobody on the victorious side registered double figures in kills or digs. Penn's service game, however, was an interesting case in numbers. Stephanie Horan finally registered more aces than service errors (4-3) and the Quakers as a team tallied 11 aces alongside nine errors. The high total in both categories can be attributed to Penn's service style. The Quakers try to accumulate a lot of aces but such efforts can lead to errors. "I was trying to be aggressive but it needs to be aggressive in the court," said Gonsorowski, who had two aces but made three service errors in the match. "The aces are good but the errors need to be cut down." Penn will definitely be working on the service game this week in practice as the Quakers prepare for their Ivy campaign. While the Leopards played a slower style than most Ivy League teams do, Penn was able to use the match to work out its problems in a match situation. As the victory ran Penn's record against Lafayette all-time to 11-1, it really amounted to a glorified practice. "They really don't compare to the level of competition we'll face with Brown and Yale [this weekend]," Penn co-captain Kristel Weaver said. "I think this week will be our best preparation for Brown and Yale.? I think it was really neat that different people got to play and did a great job. We did a good job of playing intense, keeping up our focus." Penn will need to put its success at Lafayette together with strong practices in the coming days in order to have a good opening to its Ivy campaign at the end of the week.

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