Penn volleyball is off to a hot start.
The Quakers kicked off their season this weekend in California at the Anteater Classic at UC Irvine. These games were their first under new coach Tyler Hagstrom, who took over the program in July after garnering the highest winning percentage for a coach in Bucknell history. The Quakers finished their weekend 2-1 — a strong start against difficult competition out west.
The season opened Friday night with a faceoff against Colorado, who entered the matchup 3-0. The Buffaloes had yet to lose a set before their matchup against the Quakers, and that trend continued throughout the match.
“I think, going into Colorado, we were a little nervous,” junior outside hitter Zada Sanger said. “Not only is it the first match of the season, but [there is] a lot of newness, [and] it’s also against probably one of the biggest opponents that we face in our schedule.”
Penn fought hard early — taking leads to start each of the first two sets — but Colorado went on strong runs to close them out in both sets. In the final set, the Buffaloes took an early lead and never gave it up, finishing off a victory in straight sets. Sanger headed the attack for the Quakers, leading the team in kills with nine.
“We knew it was going to be a tough opening weekend,” Hagstrom said. “I think we showed some nice things against Colorado, but there were some things that we felt like we could change moving forward for the rest of the weekend, and we were able to do that.”
After the tough loss in the opener, the Red and Blue moved on to face Fresno State (2-4), who had also fallen to Colorado earlier in the invitational.
In the first set, the two teams were locked in a tight battle with seven ties before the Quakers jumped out to a lead, led by sophomore middle blocker Adell Murray’s four kills. Despite a slight scare at the end of the set, Penn won the final point on a kill by freshman middle blocker Haley Kerstetter.
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The second set was even tighter than the first, with 16 ties, all the way to 25-25. To break the tie, Sanger swatted back-to-back kills to add to her set-leading total of nine, finishing off a win. Fresno State started the third set strong, but a strong run from the Quakers put Penn into an early lead. After two ties, Penn went up 14-13 and held the lead throughout, winning their first match of the season, and the first of many to come in Hagstrom’s Penn career.
“We saw some really nice fight from the girls,” Hagstrom said. “They were just getting after it, lots of effort, and so it was nice to see us play at a high level.”
To round out their weekend, the Red and Blue matched up against tournament host UC Irvine with a chance to finish the weekend with a winning record. The Quakers got off to a hot start in the first set, jumping out to a 10-3 lead early. Sanger led the way with four kills, while Kerstetter added another three in addition to four blocks. In the second set, sophomore outside hitter Jenna Garner took over. She had seven kills in a frame that was never close as Penn took a 2-0 lead into the final set. Garner and Murray led the way once again, each having four kills in another dominant performance for the Quakers. They finished the set by a score of 25-13, taking down Irvine to close out the invitational.
“As the week progressed, you could see the nerves kind of go away, and we got into our game mode, which was really cool to see,” Garner said. “I’m looking forward to playing more teams, trying other lineups, seeing what works best for us, but more importantly, just keeping the momentum going.”
This week, the Quakers will take part in the Towson-Coppin State invitational, with matchups against both host schools and Lafayette.
