Volleyball Travels to Penn and Princeton to Begin Road Swing

Friday, October 27

Philadelphia, Pa.

5 p.m.

Brown University

Penn

Photo by: Ashton Daniel Robertson

Volleyball Travels to Penn and Princeton to Begin Road Swing

10/26/2023 11:35:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown begins a four-game road swing with a trip to Penn on Friday (Oct. 27) and Princeton on Saturday (Oct. 28). Both matches this weekend with begin at 5 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.

Brown comes into the weekend batting for a spot in the Ivy League tournament with just three weekends of play left on the schedule. Brown is currently in third in the league with a 5-3 record, sitting one game behind Princeton, which is 6-2. The top four teams in the league will make the tournament, which will be hosted at the No. 1 seed on Nov. 17-19.

SCOUTING BROWN

The Bears will be looking to bounce back from a tough three-set loss to Yale the last time on the court. Brown will head down to Philadelphia on Friday to take on Penn before making the trip to Princeton on Saturday.
Brown takes on a Penn team on Friday that the Bears have had a lot of recent success against. Brown has won the last five meetings with the Quakers, including a 3-0 win earlier this year. The Bears last loss to Penn was an 0-3 defeat in Philadelphia on Oct. 11, 2019. The meeting in Philly last season was a 3-2 win by Brown.
In the first meeting with Penn, the Bears hit .343, while holding Penn to .061 hitting. The Bears had a 46-24 advantage in kills led by Masha Sidorova and Isabella Bonatakis with nine each. Brown distributed the ball well as Cierra Jenkins had 31 assists and five Bears had at least seven kills. Five different Bears also finished hitting above .300 with two hitting over .600.
After the trip to Penn, Brown will look for revenge after falling to Princeton in four sets in the first meeting this season. The Bears and Tigers have split the last six meetings with Brown going 1-1 at Princeton in those contests.
The first meeting of the season with the Tigers was a close battle with Brown being led in kills by Kate Sheire (13), Kayla Griebl (11) and Beau Vanderlaan (11). Cierra Jenkins had 41 assists to guide the Bears' offense.
Cierra Jenkins continues to be the linchpin to the Brown offense with the senior leading the team with 9.86 assists per set, which is third in the Ivy League. Jenkins has finished with 30 or more assists in six of Brown's eight Ivy League games and has taken more of an offensive role, collecting at least five kills in all but one match during league play. Prior to hitting just .182 against Yale, Jenkins had hit over .500 in five-straight matches.
Beau Vanderlaan leads the Ivy League and is in the top 10 in the nation in hitting percentage at .435. Vanderlaan has finished with at least six kills in every Ivy League match and has reached double figures in three of those matches. The junior has hit above .400 in four league matches and above .500 in seven contests this season.
Despite playing just three sets in her last game, Jessie Golden finished with 20 digs for the eighth time this season. Golden's eight matches with 20 digs are the most by a Bear since Melissa Cairo had 10 matches with 20+ digs in 2016. If Golden stays on her current pace of 5.60 digs per set, she would finish with second-highest average in Brown history and would be the first Bear since 2014 (Kathryn Conner) to average over 5.00 digs per set.

SCOUTING PENN

Penn is 3-15 on the season and 1-7 in Ivy League play. The Quakers earned their first Ivy win with a victory over Columbia the last time they took the court.
The offense runs through Zada Sanger, who leads the team with 3.37 kills per set. Sanger has 82 more kills and over 250 more attacks than Bella Rittenberg, who is second on the team in both categories.
Abigail Reid leads Penn's defense with 4.19 digs per set.

SCOUTING PRINCETON

Princeton is 9-7 overall and is second in the Ivy League with a 6-2 record. The Tigers have won three-straight matches coming into the weekend, but will play first-place Yale before taking on the Bears.
Princeton has two of the top five hitters in league play with Mariah Halslip hitting .404 (2nd) and Lucia Scalamandre hitting .361 (5th).
Sydney Draper is second in the league in assists per set during league play at 10.67.

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