Volleyball destroys two more Ivy foes

Two more matches, two more victims.

The Penn volleyball team continued its dismantling of Ivy opponents last weekend, defeating both Dartmouth and Harvard in straight games at the Palestra.

With the wins, the Quakers extended their winning streak to eight matches -- the longest ever under Penn coach Kerry Major.

"[The streak] is a reflection of everybody," Penn senior outside hitter Stephanie Horan said. "The coaches work us hard and the players work hard as well, in practice everyday and in every game."

Penn (16-4, 10-1 Ivy League) opened up the weekend with a 30-26, 30-14, 30-17 victory over the Big Green on Friday. Dartmouth (7-15, 2-10) struggled throughout the match, especially in blocking.

"A lot of times, they just didn't close the block, left line open or left a shot cross-court," said Penn sophomore outside hitter Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, who is also a staff writer for The Daily Pennsylvanian. "We've been working a lot on taking advantage of anything they give us."

Dartmouth managed just three blocks against the Quakers, who hit an above-average .292 for the match.

On the other side, Penn sophomore middle hitter Heather Janssen led the Quakers at the net with eight total blocks.

"We practiced all week on closing the block and getting up over the net to make sure that we weren't going to get used or cause our defense any unnecessary problems," Janssen said.

Blocking was also a crucial factor in Penn's 30-22, 30-28, 30-22 win over Harvard (10-12, 3-9). The Quakers notched 10 blocks as a team, led by freshman middle hitter Natalie Francis, who had six total blocks.

On the first play of the match, Francis teamed up with Kwak-Hefferan to stuff a right-side attack from Harvard freshman outside hitter Kaego Ogbechie, the team's most potent offensive threat.

"As soon as I saw that, I thought to myself, 'We are going to win this match,'" Major said. "We blocked their best hitter with what was supposedly one of our worst blocking positions. That just goes to show you how hard we worked during the week [in practice]."

The Quakers had yet another strong match offensively, hitting .301 as a team. Junior right-side hitter Stacey Carter had a match-high 20 kills and hit .419.

With Brown (14-10, 9-3) dropping a 3-0 decision to Cornell (15-9, 7-5) on Saturday, Penn extended its lead to one-and-a-half games over the Bears in the Ivy League standings.

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