Going into Saturday's pivotal match against Cornell, the Penn volleyball team got just the wake-up call it needed -- it lost a game.
The Quakers (14-4, 7-0 Ivy) dropped a game to winless Columbia before going on to win the match in four sets, 30-16, 28-30, 30-26, 30-21. Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan led the way with 25 kills.
Then they convincingly dismantled highly touted Cornell, 30-17, 30-26, 30-25, for their 18th straight Ivy League victory.
Penn had been looking forward to this contest for several weeks as a potential matchup of league unbeatens. Instead, the Big Red (15-3, 6-2) lost at Princeton on Friday night and looked overmatched Saturday at the Palestra.
Heather Janssen led the Quakers with 15 kills and Meredith Damore added 20 digs as the match was never in doubt. Penn held Cornell's vaunted blocking to a mere six per game.
"They came in number two in the nation in blocking and we held them to six blocks a game," Penn coach Kerry Major Carr said. "We haven't done that all year long."
The Quakers jumped on the Big Red early, riding kills from Janssen, Michelle Kauffman and Lauren Carter to take a 14-5 lead in game one. Two Cornell timeouts could not stop Penn's momentum, as the Quakers went on to win the first game, 30-17.
"We came out the strongest we have all year," Janssen said. "We kept the momentum from there and didn't let Cornell come back."
The Quakers expected Cornell to come out more focused in the second game, and it did. Led by Elizabeth Bishop's seven kills, the Big Red went up, 7-0. But Penn calmly ran off seven straight points and would tie the game at nine before winning, 30-26.
Carr provided the confidence needed to turn game two around.
"I knew that a lot of Cornell's points had come on our errors," Carr said. "We managed to finally step it up. It can be the hardest thing not to beat yourself."
Carr reassured her team at every timeout that they would win. Penn proved her right by closing out the Big Red, 30-25, in the third game. Five kills apiece by Janssen, Kwak-Hefferan and sophomore Cara Thomason proved to be the difference.
With the Quakers having rolled through the first half of the Ivy League schedule, 7-0, and having beaten soundly what was thought to be their toughest competition, the question will be whether they can stay motivated enough to hold on to their lead in the Ivies.
"We still haven't clinched the title," Carter said. "And next time around [our opponents] will know how our hitters hit, so they have a little more of an advantage. We'll need to keep each other up for winning."
Although Penn is undefeated, the Quakers only hold a one-game lead in the loss column over second-place Princeton, and two games over Cornell. The Quakers must play the Big Red again in less than two weeks on the road, so they can't overlook anyone.
Nobody believes this more than their coach.
"The second half's always harder than the first," Carr said.
