The Penn volleyball team won two out of three matches this weekend, but nobody is happy about it.
The Quakers did start off the weekend with a convincing 3-0 victory over Brown, though the Bears (2-15, 0-5 Ivy) sit at the bottom of the Ivy League standings. But the Quakers (10-7, 3-2) would later drop a winnable contest against Yale.
The Red and Blue managed to lead in two of the three games only to see the streaky Bulldogs (9-5, 3-2) string together some strong points and ultimately prevail.
"We had stronger players than them," coach Kerry Carr said. "We should have been stronger in defending their outside hitters. And our outside hitters didn't play well enough to match theirs."
The Quakers only managed a .170 attack percentage compared to the Bulldogs' .212. Coming off a loss to Princeton the night before, Penn hoped Yale would stumble into the weekend. That was far from the case.
"That must have been one of [Yale's] best matches of the year," Carr said. "Everyone was hitting well and they weren't making many errors. They were serving tough and had three strong hitters hitting well at the same time."
The Quakers were getting a strong performance by middle Kathryn Turner but couldn't get her the ball enough.
"We live and die by the pass but we couldn't get it to our other hitters and run a varied offense," Carr said. "We had to go to the same people and they adapted."
Turner did lead the team with 14 kills and a .345 attack percentage, but as a middle she was at the mercy of the Quakers' passing. Carr tried switching up her setters, playing both senior Linda Zhang and freshman Madison Wojciechowski, but neither was able to lead the Quakers to a win.
That wasn't the case on Saturday against Brown, though.
"Getting a 3-0 conference win was a good confidence builder," freshman Julia Swanson said. "They are a really scrappy team but our passing and defense carried us."
Penn got a strong performance from sophomore Anne Magnuson, who had a career-high 11 kills against the Bears. Magnuson, a spot starter at outside hitter, could see more action after playing so well in her limited time.
"She took advantage this weekend by coming in and playing well and making the best of her situation," Carr said.
The weekend's results put Penn in a three-way tie for third in the Ivy League with Yale and Cornell.
The Quakers did bounce back with a quick 3-0 victory against crosstown rival La Salle. Swanson was at her best, leading the team with 17 kills.
"When you have an important Ivy match where you wish you could have played better, it's nice to come back and dominate next time out," Carr said of the victory over La Salle.
And next weekend against second-place Dartmouth will be a critical match, as well.
"Two losses [so far this year] is not ideal but we can easily bounce back from it," Swanson said. "We can still do really well and win Ivies, but we are going to have to play our best from here on out."
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