Volleyball improves throughout weekend

The Penn volleyball team may want to consider getting as tired as possible before future matches. After eking out a grueling 3-2 victory over Delaware on Saturday, the Quakers showed no signs of fatigue in destroying Loyola, 3-0, later that day. In the final game of the Hi-IQ tournament at William and Mary, the Quakers made quick work of Loyola, outscoring the Greyhounds 45 to 19 overall. "We just came off of two weeks of preseason, so we are used to playing six hours a day," sophomore co-captain Stacey Carter said. "I think that they might have been a little bit tired and they probably weren't playing at the top of their game. Earlier in the day, Delaware gave Penn all it could handle, but the Quakers managed to hang on, playing superbly in the fifth and final game, prevailing 15-7. Perhaps the Quakers strongest performance of the tournament came in the third game, when Penn forced the Blue Hens into hitting a measly .022. For the match the Quakers hit .320. "This was a really good start for us," freshman Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan said. "With nine freshmen, it's a whole new team. I think we showed how much potential we have." With no seniors and only three juniors on the 15-person squad, this year's team is extremely young. The Quakers' success this season will, to a large extent, hinge on how well the nine youngest members adapt to the college level. "Even though we do have such a young team, I thought we played tough for our first tournament," freshman Heather Janssen said. "We're definitely optimistic after going 2-1 and playing the way we did." The Quakers showed marked improvement over the course of the tournament. After being shut out 3-0 by William and Mary, Penn managed to win its final two matches to finish second overall in the tournament. "I think that if we had played William and Mary last, we would have been able to at least take a couple games from them," Carter said. You just have to realize that over half of our team is freshman and so that first game was a pretty tough situation." With so many freshman on the squad, easing the young Quakers into the college game was just not an option for coach Kerry Major. Janssen had quite a start to her collegiate career, racking up 12 kills and a .379 hitting percentage against Delaware and then following it up with eight kills, no errors and a .571 hitting percentage against Loyola. For the upperclassmen, sophomore Stacey Carter recorded eight kills, while junior Jodie Antypas had 20 assists and five service aces against Loyola. Juniors Stephanie Horan and Kelly Szczerba played solidly all weekend as Horan finished with 29 kills and 29 digs while Szczerba had 19 kills and six blocks for the Quakers. "I think with so many freshmen on the team, there is definitely a little more pressure on the upperclassmen," Carter said. "But at the same time, we're not really worrying about that because one of our goals this year was to desegregate the different classes and just play as a team." Next up for Penn is the home opener as the Quakers welcome Lehigh to the Palestra on Wednesday. "We were all pleased with how we played in the tournament, but there is some room to do better," Carter said. "We need to work on staying up for the entire match, because we had some lapses. If we can avoid the breakdowns, we are capable of playing at a higher level.

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