Volleyball goes to Long Island for last matches before Ivies

The Penn volleyball team will have one last chance to get ready for the most crucial part of its schedule when the Quakers head to Long Island for the Stony Brook Tournament, which begins today. Penn (9-5) will play Long Island University, Albany and Stony Brook in what will be the Quakers' final warm-up before the all-important Ivy League season. "We know we always need to focus on every match, but what really matters is the Ivies," freshman Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan said. Penn is coming off of a 3-1 victory over Drexel that left the Red and Blue feeling surprisingly unsatisfied. "Even though we beat Drexel, we weren't really happy with how we played," freshman Heather Janssen said. "We didn't come out strong, and we played down to their level in that first game." The Dragons, who lost to Penn 3-2 earlier this season, surprised the Quakers by taking the first game 15-13. Drexel's strong start proved short-lived as the fired up Quakers rallied to win three straight. Penn seemed to improve drastically just over the course of the match. A squad which seemed sluggish in the first game looked almost unbeatable in the fourth when Penn walked away with the match by virtue of a 15-5 drubbing. "I definitely think that we took them a little bit lightly at first, probably because we had already beaten them," Penn freshman Katie Brandt said. "But they were ready to play, and they were looking for revenge. It took us a while to get going." Brandt played beautifully for the Quakers, tallying 12 kills and finishing with a hitting percentage of .455. Kwak-Hefferan led the Penn defense with 19 digs, while junior Kelly Szczerba and sophomore Kai Gonsorowski chipped in with 11 digs apiece. Janssen was another key for Penn, totalling seven kills and four total blocks. Even though the Quakers showed their improvement by beating Drexel in four games -- as compared to five earlier this year -- the team has not been happy with the mental focus as of late. "This past week we have been doing a lot of work on the mental aspect of the game," Kwak-Hefferan said. "We know we have the ability, so we just need to make sure we play like we can for the entire game, not just part of it." If Penn plays like it did in the fourth game against Drexel, the team probably won't have much difficulty this weekend. In that game, the Quakers played up to their potential with a team hitting percentage of .304. In Penn's first match of the weekend against Stony Brook, the Quakers will be facing the same challenge they faced against Drexel. The key for Penn will be not taking a mediocre team like the Seawolves lightly. Stony Brook, with only one player above 5'10", should be overmatched by a young and talented Quakers squad. "I think we learned our lesson against Drexel that we can't play down to our competition," Kwak-Hefferan said. "We have to come out and jump on whoever we're playing." A good showing in this tournament could give Penn the confidence it needs heading into some tough conference games. A loss or two in this tournament would mean that the Quakers are going into the most crucial part of their schedule loaded down with doubt after a strong 7-2 start to the season. "We've been working a lot on visualization this week," Kwak-Hefferan said. "We know we need to be mentally ready and get our confidence back."

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