Volleyball | Gwin makes most of Senior Night start

Volleyball senior Stephanie Gwin had to wait until Senior Night to get her first start this season, but she wasted no time capitalizing on the opportunity.

Sophomore Megan Tryon set her up on the first play of the Quakers' match against Brown, and the co-captain slammed a hard kill right down the middle.

"The last two games I came in and hit an error, so that kill was a big improvement," she said. "I was pretty excited."

The excitement only increased as she went on to set a new career-high with 10 kills, helping the Quakers decisively sweep the Bears at the Palestra. The win was sweet revenge for Penn after it had come up short in Friday's five-set thriller with Yale, which became the Ivy champion by beating Princeton Saturday.

Gwin's fellow senior co-captain Kathryn Turner moved into second place on Penn's all-time block assists list, registering seven on the weekend.

Turner has been the most consistent player for the Quakers (13-12, 9-4 Ivy) this year, but Gwin stole the show on Senior Night.

"You can't write up a better script than that," acting coach Ryan Goodwin said. "[Gwin] has battled through injuries and all sorts of different setbacks, and to be able to have her last home match hitting .410 is amazing."

Goodwin and Gwin both praised Tryon for leading the offense. Her balanced setting kept the Bears (12-14, 4-10) hopelessly guessing at who would get the ball, and they managed just one block in the match.

"That's a hitter's dream, when you have seams in the block and you just get to go tee off on it," Goodwin said.

Tryon registered 40 assists against Brown and 47 against Yale (19-4, 13-1), but Bulldogs senior setter Ally Mendenhall bested her with 57 on Friday. Mendenhall also contributed 21 digs for a Yale defense that amassed 109 in all.

"That's just a testament to the quality of the volleyball tonight," Goodwin said. "We were able to put enough pressure on them to elicit 109 digs and they were able to produce that."

Madison Wojciechowski broke her own school record for digs in a season, pushing her total to 491.

Solid play from both clubs kept the match tight, but Yale threatened to end that trend leading two sets to one and 23-21 in the fourth. Junior Cat Dailey's serve zipped through the Penn defense and landed on the baseline for what everyone in the Palestra thought was an ace - including the line judge and one referee. But the head referee called the serve out.

"I don't know if you should overrule a game at that point in time," Yale coach Erin Appleman said. "I obviously don't think it was a good call. It changed the momentum, and it shouldn't have."

The Bulldogs collapsed after that debacle. Two consecutive errors by Quakers kills leader Alexis Crusey gave Penn a 24-23 lead. On set point, a Turner dig sailed back over the net for what should have been an easy pass, but all six Bulldogs watched as the ball fell between them.

The ensuing fifth set see-sawed to a 12-12 tie. Dailey took control at that point, finishing off the Quakers with three straight kills, giving her a match-high 22 to go with 25 digs.

"As an athlete, that's what you want to do," Dailey said of her late-game heroics. "That's why you come to play."

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