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(09/24/93 9:00am)
With the start of the Ivy League season just a week away, the Penn volleyball team is looking to take the next step towards becoming an elite team. After showing tremendous improvement in a 3-0 victory at Lafayette last week, the Quakers can take that next step in this weekend's Quaker Classic. The Quakers (2-2) will kick off the tournament tonight against Canisius (2-6) at 7 p.m. at the Palestra. Penn will then play a doubleheader on Saturday with matches against Big East power Boston College (2-6) and Navy (6-2) at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively. All four squads feel that they have a legitimate chance to win the tournament, which should make for competitive matches throughout. "Certainly we are coming in looking to win the whole thing," Boston College coach Nadine Lilavois said. "But, that will take hard work and a fighting spirit. You can never underestimate your opponents." The Quaker Classic should be made even more interesting by the fact that the teams are extremely unfamiliar with each other. Although all four teams do receive scouting reports, there will undoubtedly have to be some adjustments during the matches. "You can never focus on one thing in preparation for a volleyball match," Lilavois said. "Every match is a learning experience." "The most important thing, is to concentrate on your game," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "If we stay relaxed and execute our game plan well, our chances become very good." If the Quakers are to perform up to Feeney's expectations, they will have to further improve on last weekend's performance against the Leopards. "We definitely took a step in the right direction," Feeney said. "But we have lots more to accomplish. Last week we cut our errors in half, but we need to cut them in half again." Feeney felt that one of the keys to the Quakers' more consistent play was their improved communication on the court. She noted that Penn has had a solid week of practice and she expects further dividends from greater team cohesiveness. Senior captain Devon Austin, the team's leading outside hitter, echoed Feeney's remarks about the team's high level of play during recent practices. "If we play like we did in practice the past few days, we have a great chance of winning all three matches," Austin said. "The most important thing for us is to find that balance between staying relaxed and being aggressive." Austin's senior experience could play a major factor should the Quakers meet the Midshipmen in a winner-take-all showdown tomorrow night. Although Navy is an extremely talented club that is "just starting to gel" according to coach Jan Dainard, the one thing it lacks is experience. There is not one senior on the Navy roster. Austin will have to lead a relatively young and inexperienced Penn team by example as it tries to step up its play to meet the challenges presented by the tough out-of-league competition in this weekend's tournament. A win for the Quakers would not only provide Feeney with a plaque for her office walls, but it would give Penn some much needed confidence and momentum – two things that would be nice to take with them into the upcoming Ivy League season.
(09/17/93 9:00am)
One of the defining characteristics of a good sports team is the ability to rebound from a humiliating loss with a solid performance. However, the Penn volleyball team's matchup tomorrow at Lafayette (1-2) will provide an excellent test for the Quakers (1-2), who suffered a disappointing beginning to their season in last weekend's Penn Invitational. The 1 p.m. match at Kirby Field House will serve as an excellent opportunity for Penn not only to put a win on the board, but also to monitor its improvement after a tough week of practices where the team appeared to make dramatic strides, according to the coaching staff. "We had a great day of practice [yesterday]," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "The beginning of the week was a little tense after last weekend's disappointments, but the team appears to be sharp and having fun out there." If there was a positive that came from the weekend for the Quakers it was in identifying their problems, which is the first step towards fixing them. Mental errors and breakdowns in communication plagued Penn throughout its straight set losses to Providence and Delaware. "We spent all week working on our cohesiveness and playing together as a unit," Feeney said. "I truly believe that this could be an outstanding team within a period of around three weeks. The question is how long it will take us to gel." One reason for the errors last week was simply a lack of match play. The Quaker coaching staff noted that in spite of all the good things seen in practice, a final verdict on Penn's improvement can't be given until the team's match performance is assessed. In spite of all the scrimmaging and match situations that Penn can simulate in practice, the players continue to see the same plays from the same players. There is no substitute for real competition. There will be no excuses for Penn this week due to the fact that the Leopards are just as inexperienced on the court, having played only four matches, including one last night against Drexel. "We're still very inconsistent," Lafayette rookie coach Penny Erisman said. "We simply need more match play to avoid all the errors that come from not having played together." Erisman also noted that the Leopards were a very "scrappy" team that was doing an excellent job picking up balls defensively in the early season. Despite the relative proximity of the schools, the two teams know very little about each other. The teams have not played in the last few years, and the Quakers will not even get a tape of Lafayette in action until today when they will view last night's Drexel match. "We won't change our game that much," Feeney said. "We may alter our rotations some to avoid mismatches up front, but we need to worry more about our game. We need to play better than we did last weekend. If we can cut down on those errors and communicate better offensively and defensively, we should win." It is very important for the Quakers to come home with that win, not just to even their record, but to give them confidence heading into the more difficult portion of their schedule. "Winning is the most important thing," senior captain Devon Austin said. "To accomplish that, we have to put everything together. We have to play as a team and play aggressively. We also have to have fun out there. Last weekend just wasn't fun." Most importantly of all however, tomorrow's match will be used as a gauge to determine whether or not the Quakers have the potential to rebound from a disappointing weekend, in the process taking the first step in becoming a good team.
(09/13/93 9:00am)
The only constant for the Penn volleyball team as it opened its season at the Palestra over the weekend was inconsistency. The Quakers started their 1993 campaign by going 1-2 in the Penn Invitational. After a 3-0 trouncing of the Buffalo Bulls (1-2) on Friday evening, Penn was shutout by an overpowering Providence squad before losing its focus and a 3-0 decision to the Fightin' Blue Hens of Delaware. The Friars, the defending Big East champions, (3-0 on the weekend, 6-2 overall) won the tournament by taking advantage of tremendous blocking that resulted from their dominant height in the frontline. Providence also received impressive setting from all-tournament junior setter Marnie Panek. "Our blocking was definitely the key," Friar coach Dick Bagge said. "Not necessarily on knocking balls to the floor, but we got lots of deflections that helped us set up our offense." The Quakers started out the season with an impressive all-around performance against Buffalo. Sophomore Heather Glick, last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, led Penn to a convincing 15-13, 15-11, 15-12 win by contributing 34 assists and recording a 80-percent hitting percentage. Senior captain Devon Austin pounded out 12 kills while sophomore Carol Cit Kovic supplied superb defense with four blocks and nine digs. Saturday's matches illustrated the Quakers inexperience and lack of match play at this early point in the season. Providence used its height and attacking style to keep Penn on the defensive throughout the match. The Quakers committed an array of serving and hitting errors that led to a negative hitting percentage and a 15-5, 15-11, 15-13 loss at the hands of the Friars. "They're big and athletic," Penn coach Margaret Feeney said. "They go 6-foot plus all the way around. We were forced to change up our rotations because they had a huge mismatch against our 5-4 setter. "We also made lots of serving errors at critical times in the match and we were not communicating well at all. That's something that's an individual responsibility. We just haven't gelled yet." In addition to the serving errors and poor hitting all the way around, Glick, an all-tournament selection, only produced 22 assists against Providence in three games. Setters should normally produce at least 10 assists per game. "We expected to have some problems with Providence," Austin said. "But we just didn't play well. We never pulled it together and we broke down defensively." Unfortunately for the Quakers, bad times only got worse. After the disappointing loss to Providence that ended Penn's hoping of winning the Invitational, the Quakers played a flat and uninspired match against a Delaware team that had lost both its previous contests during the weekend. "The competition was excellent throughout the tournament," Delaware assistant coach Traci Marr said. "We managed to play much better defense against Penn and picked up a lot of balls that we hadn't been getting." "We just never got into the match," Feeney said. "We were totally flat." It may have been a totally flat match for the Quakers, but it wasn't a totally flat weekend. Freshman hitter Alexis Usnick had seven kills in just two games. Freshman middle blocker Jennifer Law also turned in a good performance on the weekend with five blocks. But despite these strong performances, Feeney was not pleased with her team's overall effort on the weekend. "Losing to Delaware in three games was very disappointing for us," Feeney said. "Certainly, if this continues we'll have to instill some punishment. This team may look like the track team this week." Although it was a disappointing weekend for the Quakers, there are clearly reasons to be optimistic. Offensively, Austin recorded 23 kills while junior defensive specialist Hallie Ben-Horin dug up 22 balls. "I think we have the talent, but we have to start limiting our errors," Feeney said. "We need to start beating these big schools. Right now, I'm only happy with about one in three balls." Unfortunately for Penn, the bright spots were far outnumbered by mental errors and breakdowns in communication. The Quakers will have to eliminate the lapses of inconsistency that occurred this weekend if they are going to become a consistent volleyball team that is capable of not only winning in the Ivies, but against strong out of conference foes as well.
