Volleyball Begins Home Schedule with Matches Against Harvard and Dartmouth

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown volleyball opens up its home schedule with two Ivy League matches this weekend. The Bears will host Harvard on Friday (Oct. 17) before playing Dartmouth on Saturday (Oct. 18).

The match against the Crimson will begin at 7 p.m. and first serve against the Big Green is set for 6 p.m. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+ and the Harvard match will also be on NESN+.

Friday's match against Harvard will be Brown's Pink Out game for Breast Cancer and fans are encouraged to wear pink.

THE FIRST SERVE

Brown will play their first home matches of the season this weekend as the Bears are set to take on Harvard and Dartmouth. The Bears will be the last DI team in the country to play a home game this year, having spent the first 14 games of the season on the road.
Brown is coming off a 1-1 weekend where the Bears dropped a four-set contest at Cornell and swept Columbia.
The Bears will now close out the first half of the Ivy League season looking to set themselves up to earn a spot in the Ivy League Tournament. Brown is tied with Yale at 3-2 in Ivy League play for third place. The Bears will take on Harvard and Dartmouth, both 2-3 in league play and tied for fifth place. The top four teams will make the Ivy League tournament.
The Bears have won eight of the last nine meetings with Harvard, including both last season. Brown has won 12 of the last 14 sets against the Crimson.
Brown has owned the recent series with Dartmouth, winning each of the last 10 meetings. The last meeting with the Big Green was a five set contest in Providence.

LEADING THE BEARS

Mariia Sidorova continues to lead the Bears with 3.26 kills per set and has reached double-figure kills in each of her last three matches.
Sophia Wolfson leads the Bears, is second in the Ivy League and 32nd overall in blocks per set at 1.34.
Jessie Golden is second in the Ivy and 34th in the NCAA with a team-best 4.64 digs per set.

SCOUTING HARVARD

Harvard is 3-10 on the season and 2-3 in Ivy League play. The Crimson have three-set wins over Dartmouth and Columbia this season but lost in four sets to both Penn and Princeton the last time on the court.
The Crimson sit in the bottom three spots in the league in most statistical categories but are leading the league in both blocks per set (2.46) and aces per set (1.85).
Taylor Larkin leads Harvard with 1.38 blocks per set, best in the Ivy League and 23rd in the NCAA.

SCOUTING DARTMOUTH

Dartmouth is 5-10 on the season and 2-3 in Ivy League play with wins over Columbia and Penn. The Big Green beat the Quakers in five sets last Saturday (Oct. 11). Dartmouth will face off against Yale on Friday before coming to Brown.
The Big Green are third in the Ivy League with 14.66 digs per set, led by EllaMae Fitzgerald with 3.72 digs per set.
Offensively, Dartmouth is hitting just .153 on the season. Kauany Gutz leads the offense with 2.92 kills per set.

WEEKLY HONORS

Sophia Wolfson was named Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 6 after her performances against Princeton and Penn. Guiding Brown to a 2-0 weekend. Wolfson finished the weekend with 3.25 kills per set while hitting .431. She also added seven blocks, four digs and three aces.

HOME SWEET HOME

After playing its first 14 games of the season on the road, Brown will finally play its first home games of the year when the Bears host Harvard and Dartmouth. The Bears are the last team in DI volleyball to have a home game.
Brown will get cozy inside the Pizzitola Sports Center as the Bears finish with seven of their last nine games at home. A good sign as the Bears are 12-5 on their home court under head coach Taylor Virtue.

COMING UP GOLDEN

Jessie Golden was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year for the second-straight season. The Tampa, Fla., native, as well as former Bear Victoria Vo have combined to give Brown three of the last four Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Golden reached 1,000-career digs last season and is moving up the all-time digs list at Brown.

            1) Tomo Nakanishi '97   1,762
            2) Katie Lapinsky '08      1,728
            3) Kathryn Conner '15   1,432
            4) Elvina Kung '04          1,397
            5) Mary Mcmains '98     1,355

            Jessie Golden '26          1,325

Golden comes into her senior year with a career 4.06 digs per set number. That number would be third all-time in program history. Golden has finished with a higher digs per set number than 4.06 in each of her last two seasons.
With 21 digs against Cornell, Golden now has 25 career matches with at least 20 digs. This is the most by a Bear in a career since Melissa Cairo (2014-17) finished her career with 24.

KAKKIS TAKING CONTROL

Sophomore Julia Kakkis took control of Brown's offense when the freshman setter took over the spot at the beginning of Ivy League play last season. Kakkis finished the year with 8.81 assists per set and earned Honorable Mention Ivy League honors in her first year on College Hill.
Kakkis finished the year with 16-straight matches of double-figure assists and had a season-best 53 assists against Princeton.
This season, Kakkis has again been at the helm of Brown's offense as the sophomore is averaging 9.31 assists per set. Kakkis has gone over 40 assists three times and has reached the 30-assist mark in nine matches this season, including each of the last five.
Julia Kakkis reached 1,000 career assists in the win over Penn. Kakkis reached the milestone in her 33rd-career game, becoming the fastest Bear to reach 1,000 career assists since Kristen Sellers did so in her 32nd-career game in 2019.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Brown will be playing on ESPNU for the second-straight season as the Bears will host Princeton on national TV on Nov. 2 at 12 p.m. Last year Brown and Princeton also played on ESPNU in Providence with Princeton coming away with a five-set win.

WINNING WAYS

Brown has now posted four-straight seasons with winning records in Ivy League play after finished 8-6 last season. Brown's tied its longest stretch of winning league records as Brown was over .500 from 1987-90. The Bears posted a .500 record or better from 1983-90.
Brown's 11 wins last season made it six-straight seasons of double-digit wins for Brown. The last time Brown had seven-straight double-digit win seasons came from 1996-2002.

SOAKING UP THE SUNSHINE

Brown made its first trip to Florida since 2018, when the Bears made the trip to Stetson for a three-game tournament. During the trip to UCF, Brown pulled off a four-set win over the host Knights, giving Brown its first win over a Power 4 team in program history.

WOLFSON'S HOT START

Brown sophomore Sophia Wolfson got off to a hot start at the Ocean State Cup, taking over as Brown's starting middle. Wolfson finished with double-digit kills in two matches, including a career-high 14 against URI. Wolfson also hit .500 or higher in two matches, hitting .625 against Bryant. For her efforts, Wolfson was named to the Ocean State Cup All-Tournament Team.
Things got better for Wolfson over Brown's trip to UConn as the sophomore put on a career performance in wins over Sacred Heart and Marist. Wolfson finished with 12 blocks in both a three-set win against the Pioneers and a four-set win against the Red Foxes.
It marks just the second time in program history that a Bear has had 12+ blocks in back-to-back matches with the last time being Leyla Goldsmith in 1996 against Columbia and Cornell.

HITTING HIGH

Sophia Wolfson has already hit over .500 in five matches this season, including a season-best .625 against Bryant. All five of those matches have come with double-figure kills, the lowest a 10-kill performance in Brown's win over UCF (Sept. 14).
The last Bear to have at least five matches with over a .500 hitting percentage (min. 10 attacks) was Beau Vanderlaan, who did it seven times back in 2023. Vanderlaan also had five matches of over .500 hitting and double-figure kills during the season.

ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS

Brown has had five players earn All-Tournament honors throughout preseason play.
In the first weekend, Sophia Wolfson and Julia Kakkis were named to the Ocean State Cup All-Tournament Team.
Jessie Golden earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team in the second weekend of the season at UCF.
Wolfson and Ally Panzloff earned All-Tournament Honors at UConn.

IT'S ABOUT HOW YOU START

The first set has been instrumental in Brown's success under head coach Taylor Virtue. When Brown wins the first set this season, they are 5-0 and in the three seasons under Virtue Brown is 32-4 overall when winning the first set.
If the Bears lose the first set, things have been bleak. Brown is 0-5 this season if they drop the first set and 3-21 under Virtue overall.
When Brown wins the first two sets of a match they are 25-2 under Virtue but are 1-20 when dropping the first two sets

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Volleyball Begins Home Schedule with Matches Against Harvard and Dartmouth

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jessie Golden

Julia Kakkis

Ally Panzloff

Mariia Sidorova

Beau Vanderlaan

Victoria Vo

Sophia Wolfson

Brown University Athletics

Volleyball Begins Home Schedule with Matches Against Harvard and Dartmouth

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jessie Golden

Julia Kakkis

Ally Panzloff

Mariia Sidorova

Beau Vanderlaan

Victoria Vo

Sophia Wolfson

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