During warm-ups, the Penn volleyball team was all smiles and visibly loose heading into its match against La Salle. As it turned out, the Explorers couldn't wipe the smile off their opponent's faces, as Penn cruised to a 3-0 win last night at the Palestra.
Following their tough loss to Princeton on Saturday, the Quakers (5-7, 0-1 Ivy) should have been tense coming into the match against their cross-town rival. But co-captain Liz Hurst said it was important for her teammates to stay loose in order to be successful against La Salle (7-15).
"We definitely always play better when we're relaxed, " the senior libero said. "We corrected our mistakes from the Princeton match, and our offense improved a lot."
Penn coach Kerry Carr knows it was important for her team to rebound from last weekend's league-opening loss to Princeton and get a win before returning to Ivy League competition.
"We improved on a lot of the things that hurt us Saturday night," Carr said. "We stayed playing up at our level even though [La Salle] was a level below us. We need to do that against the Ivy League teams."
Carr said the Quakers improved their defense, which was led by junior Laura Black, who had 12 digs, and freshman Natalie Drucker, who contributed four blocks.
Anna Shlimak led the Quakers attack with 10 kills.
"We had a game plan, we were working on hitting the ball hard down the line," the junior outside hitter said. "That's what we tried to do tonight."
Juniors Erin Sullivan and Stephanie Owen led the Explorers with seven kills each.
Senior Carolyn Judge, who had 12 digs, was a defensive standout for La Salle.
The first game was a back-and-forth battle until Penn took control late.
The Quakers started off hot, scoring six of the first seven points, triggering an early timeout by La Salle coach Dave Stever.
But the Explorers stormed back to take a 17-13 lead.
Despite blowing the early lead, Carr showed confidence in her team by not calling a timeout, and it paid off. The Quakers then used six straight points behind junior Linda Zhang's serve to take a 23-21 lead. The Red and Blue would eventually win the game,
30-25.
From then on, Penn dominated the match, winning the next two games easily, 30-20 and 30-16.
The Quakers simply overpowered their opponents, hitting at a stellar .347 percentage.
Carr said the lopsided nature of the last two games allowed her to put in some of the substitutes who don't normally get much playing time.
"They are talented players but are just inexperienced," Carr said. "This allowed us to build our depth so they are ready to play against the Ivy League teams."
Penn hopes to ride the momentum from this victory as it heads into the heart of its Ivy League schedule. The team's next match is this Friday at Harvard.
