The Penn volleyball team fought to five games for the third time in a row last night, this time against Big 5 rival Villanova. The Quakers fought hard, and eventually won, 3-2.
"We expected a strong offensive and blocking team," Penn coach Kerry Carr said. "We also expected them to have a scrappy defense."
The Red and Blue (12-9, 4-5 Ivy) clinched the first game, 33-31.
"We really had a sense of confidence and we were able to push through at the end of game one," Carr said.
Although Penn won game three, 30-23, the Wildcats (7-17, 1-7 Big East) recovered in games two and four, defeating the Quakers, 30-20 and 30-19, respectively. This extended the match to five games.
In the fifth game, Penn opened with a 2-0 lead, but Villanova gained momentum and pulled ahead, 8-4. Carr then called a timeout to regroup.
"I tried to give them confidence and point out the hitters that we knew would set for Villanova," Carr said.
The Quakers recovered, gained sufficient confidence and won the game, 15-13.
"We went after tough hits. We didn't just tip," Carr said. "That was the key to winning."
"It was really exciting to come from behind and win," senior middle hitter Lynzy Caton said. "It was a big confidence boost and it shows what we can do."
The San Jose, Calif., native contributed 15 kills in the win. Junior Cara Thomason and freshman Laura Black recorded 14 kills apiece. Thomason, an outside hitter, also tallied 24 defensive digs.
Defensively, sophomore defensive specialist Meredith Damore set a new personal record with 33 digs. Freshman Linda Zhang recorded nine kills, 55 assists and six digs.
"Our serving was strong," Zhang said. "This made it easier to execute our game plan."
Carr attributes the Red and Blue's win to a total team effort.
"We spread the strengths of Lynzy, Cara, Laura and Linda," Carr said.
The Quakers recently have played in several five-game matches. They pulled off victories against Dartmouth and Brown, while falling to Harvard and Yale.
"We are used to two-and-a-half hour matches now," Carr said. "It doesn't scare us."
This weekend marks the end of the Quakers' home season at the Palestra. On Friday night, they face Cornell, a team that defeated them 3-1 in Ithaca, N.Y.
"We expect them to pick apart our defense with tips," Zhang said. "We need to improve on blocking and penetrating over the net."
"They hit like Villanova, so we will need to work on blocking and defense," Carr said. "If we can fix those two problems, we'll come out ahead."
