Knights roll over Volleyball

The Penn volleyball team got a bit of a reality check last night at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights (7-3) outplayed the Quakers (7-3) the entire match en route to a 15-9, 15-1, 16-14 victory. "This was a very strong team for us to play against right now," Penn coach Kerry Major said. "They always beat us 3-0. We haven't beaten them yet." An extremely young Penn squad, with nine freshmen out of its 15 players, was just thoroughly outplayed by the taller Rutgers unit. "They had some really tall players compared to us," Major said. "They just hit over and around us, so that was discouraging." A glance at the lineups for the two teams makes it clear why Penn was so easily beaten. Rutgers line-up features five players above six feet, as compared to just one for Penn. Penn managed a measly two blocks in the match. "Our blocking was pretty non-existent throughout," Major said. "They were just too tall and too good for us to do a lot about." The Scarlet Knights also have much more game experience; they have only two freshmen in the lineup. Penn's inexperience may have been a key factor in a poorly played second game for the Quakers. "The second game was really disappointing for everyone," junior Kelly Szczerba said. "We didn't come out like we should have, and we didn't have the right attitude." Penn should, however, take some solace in the effort put forth by the Quakers in the third and final game of the match. After being completely outplayed in both of the first two games, the Quakers managed to play Rutgers even, finally succumbing 16-14. "When we get our defense going, we can really turn it up and play neck and neck with anybody," Szczerba said. "If we can consistently play as well as we ended today, I think we will be OK." Junior Stephanie Horan was a bright spot for Penn, with seven kills, only one error and a hitting percentage of .250. Szczerba also shined, tallying five kills with no errors and an impressive .454 hitting percentage. In earlier years, a 3-0 loss to Rutgers would have been completely expected, but this year's crop of freshmen have been performing better than expected. The Quakers managed to go 4-1 over last weekend on their way to winning the Sheraton Invitational at home. "We knew going in how tough Rutgers was, but we like playing teams like them," Major said. "We're trying to gain experience by playing the top teams before the Ivy League season." Penn will have another chance to get ready for the Ivy season when the Quakers face an extremely strong Georgetown team this weekend at the Georgetown Tournament. "Hopefully we will have great practices this week, because Georgetown is even better than Rutgers," Major said. "Our goal will be just to play hard and play our best and hopefully give them a game."

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