It is a familiar refrain in sports: the numbers don't matter as long as you win. Such was the case for the Penn volleyball team against Harvard Saturday at the Palestra.
The fourth-place Crimson (8-16, 7-7 Ivy), with a roster less than half the size of Penn's, threw everything they had at the Quakers (19-6, 12-1) and then some, but it was not enough. Penn pulled out the win by three games to two -- 31-29, 26-30, 30-28, 26-30, 15-11. With that win, and by defeating Dartmouth, 3-0, Friday night, the Quakers clinched at least a share of the Ivy League Championship heading into Wednesday night's title-deciding matchup with Princeton (18-6, 11-2) at the Palestra. The winner of the Ivies gets an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
"It feels great, but it also feels like we're not done yet," Penn coach Kerry Major Carr said. "We really want to win the championship outright."
This is the third consecutive Ancient Eight volleyball title for the Red and Blue -- the first time that has ever happened.
"It feels so great," Penn senior Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan said. "Not only for my team and my teammates but to leave a legacy that's going to stand -- nobody can take that away from us."
All five games were drawn out, back-and-forth affairs. There were a total of 24 ties and 13 lead changes during the match. But Kwak-Hefferan and fellow senior Heather Janssen carried the Red and Blue -- Janssen had 22 kills and seven blocks, while Kwak-Hefferan had 18 kills and 29 digs.
"We knew this was a crucial match because of our standing in the league right now," Janssen said. "We just wanted to take care of business today.
"I wasn't really thinking about numbers, I was just going all out to win the game," Kwak-Hefferan said.
Carr, on the other hand, was not surprised by the performances of two of her best players.
"They always stand out," she said, calling Kwak-Hefferan "our go-to hitter in long rallies" and Janssen "definitely our best middle out there."
The Crimson's scrappiness belied the fact that they are fourth in the Ivy League standings. Their players seemed to be everywhere on the floor, diving for every ball and nearly scrapping their way to an impressive victory.
"They were picking up everything," Kwak-Hefferan said. "It was hard to put kills on that team."
Although Penn had a distinct advantage in depth over Harvard, with a 23-player roster to the Crimson's 12, Janssen dismissed the idea that the Quakers took their opposition lightly as a result.
"We've played against Columbia," she said, referring to the fact that the Lions only have eight players on their team. "Either way, we're playing Division I volleyball, so you can't take any team lightly -- especially in the Ivy League."
Carr admitted that there is work to be done before Wednesday night, when the Quakers will end the regular season against their archrivals.
"We've been really focused on offense for the last two weeks, and I think as a coach that I should have focused more on defense and passing," she said. "We've always been good at it but to remind the girls... that's what we're going to work on the next two practices before Princeton."
