Like their shoes on the court, the Owls squeaked out a 3-2 win against the Quakers.
Following their decisive wins at the Delaware Invitational, the Quakers (6-4, 0-0 Ivy) returned home to face Philadelphia neighbor Temple (10-4, 0-0 AAC) for the first time since 2022. Both teams came into the matchup with clean 3-0 sweeps from invitationals last weekend, but only one could come out of the Palestra extending its win streak. Ultimately, the Red and Blue narrowly lost to the Owls in a long, five-set thriller.
The late Tuesday evening match was close throughout. By the end of the night, Penn had racked up 79 points, while Temple had won 81 points. Temple had 64 kills and 59 assists while Penn had 62 and 58, respectively.
In the first set, Penn took an early 8-5 lead and pushed the score to 18-9. However, Temple refused to back down and responded with six straight points to make it 18-15. This shift evened out the momentum between the two teams, but the Red and Blue pulled through with three straight points to make it 21-15, and eventually took the set, 25-22.
Strong action from sophomore outside hitter Jenna Garner, who had four kills, and a key block from reigning Ivy League Player of the Week junior outside hitter Zada Sanger and senior middle blocker Jalen Tennyson contributed to the Quakers’ early lead.
Heading into the second set, the Owls had renewed energy, coming in strong to take the lead and holding it throughout most of the set. Early on, the Quakers managed to take six straight points, thanks to a service ace by freshman libero Addison Pollock, kills by junior right-side hitter Bella Rittenberg, sophomore middle blocker Adell Murray, and Garner, along with three assists from senior setter Anna Shohfi. This run took the score to a Penn lead at 11-10.
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But Temple would return the pressure, responding by taking back the lead and winning the next five points. At 15-11, Temple managed to maintain their lead through the end of the set.
The Quakers didn’t give up and continued to power through with a fighting mentality — something familiar to them after powering through adversity in previous seasons.
“We just want to fight for every single point. And I thought we stopped doing that for a little bit. We just sort of got a little tentative. When this team plays hard and plays together, good things happen,” coach Tyler Hagstrom said.
With the match tied at one set apiece, both teams rallied to find their best performance. Temple seemed to find it first, as they pulled ahead at 18-12, but Penn responded by taking it to 19-16.
Three of those four points included assists from sophomore setter Emery Moore, and two were kills by sophomore outside hitter Ellie Siskin. They were unable to keep this momentum and lost the set, 25-21.
The chaotic fourth set saw the lead change five times and the scoreboard tied up 10 times. The score was 19-19 when the moves were made to decide the victor. Siskin and Garner came together once again with kills to stop a Temple attack, which put the Quakers ahead by four points, but three straight points by Temple had them back in the picture. Penn took a timeout before trading points to be just behind the Owls at 24-23. A kill from Temple outside/right-side hitter Leia Harper sealed the win for the Owls.
The shortened fifth set saw the lead change three times, with Penn going up 11-8. Four points from victory, the Quakers faced six straight points from Temple, making the score 14-11. The team wasn’t quite done yet, holding off two match points before a kill from Temple’s Harper closed out the match.
“We showed a lot of fight and a lot of grit and a lot of teamwork to sort of put ourselves back in it,” Hagstrom said. “[It] would have been nice to pull [the win] out [the fifth set], but I'm proud of the team for showing that fight to get back in the match.”
Hagstrom notes that the team is focused on “fighting for every point” and continuing to develop their new offense system ahead of Ivy League play that kicks off on Friday against the Tigers.
