Volleyball Closes Regular Season Hosting Columbia and Cornell

Friday, November 14

Providence, R.I.

6 p.m.

Brown University

Columbia

Photo by: Sage Hurteau

Volleyball Closes Regular Season Hosting Columbia and Cornell

11/13/2025 11:37:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown volleyball closes out its regular season with two home matches over the weekend. The Bears will be hosting Columbia on Friday (Nov. 14) and Cornell on Saturday (Nov. 15).

Both matched will begin at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+. Friday's match will be Brown's senior day with the Bears honoring their five seniors - Isabella Bonatakis, Hannah Flannery, Jessie Golden, Ella Park and Mariia Sidorova.

FIRST SERVE

Brown clinched a spot in the Ivy League tournament over the weekend, marking the fourth-straight year that Brown has made the tournament, joining Princeton and Yale as the only teams to make the tournament every year.
The Bears will have an outside shot of hosting the Ivy League Tournament but will need to win both matches and will need Princeton to lose at least one match against Harvard or Dartmouth.
Brown split matches last weekend, sweeping Dartmouth and being swept by Harvard. In the match against the Big Green, Brown scored the final 15 points of the third set to complete the sweep.
Both Mariia Sidorova (98) and Jessie Golden (90) are getting close to collecting 100-career service aces.

SCOUTING COLUMBIA

Columbia enters the weekend with a 2-20 overall record and an 0-12 mark in Ivy League play. The Lions have lost 15-straight matches.
Elena Maynulet is leading the Lions with 2.77 kills per set but is hitting just .184 on the season
As a team, Columbia is hitting .187 but is allowing their opponents to hit .272.

INSIDE THE SERIES

Brown has won 12-straight matches in the series with Columbia and have swept the Lions in each of the last five contests.
The Bears last home loss against Columbia was back in the 2016 season.

SCOUTING CORNELL

Cornell is 14-8 on the season and 9-3 in league play. The Big Red will play at Yale on Friday before taking on the Bears.
Cornell is currently tied with Princeton for first place in the Ivy League.
Eliza Konvicka leads the Ivy League in in kills per set (3.79), aces per set (0.42) and points per set (4.56).

INSIDE THE SERIES

Brown has split the last four meetings with Cornell, including dropping the first meeting of the season in four sets in Ithaca.
The Bears have won three of the last four meetings in Providence against the Big Red, but were swept by Cornell at the Pizzitola Sports Center last season.

BEARS IN THE NCAA

Sophia Wolfson leads the Ivy League and is 18th in the NCAA with 1.45 blocks per set.
Jessie Golden is second in the Ivy League and 27th in the NCAA with 4.72 digs per set.
These two have combined to help Brown boast the best opposing hitting percentage in the league, allowing opposing teams to hit just .195.
Wolfson's .383 hitting percentage is 40th in the NCAA.
Julia Kakkis is 58th in the NCAA and second in the Ivy League with 9.69 assists per set.

HELLO FISAYO

Sophomore Fisayo Afonja returned to the lineup on Oct. 4 and has made an immediate impact for the Bears.
In a three match stretch against Yale, Penn and Princeton, Afonja recorded double-figure kills, including a career-high 14 kills against Princeton.
Afjonja also posted an 11-kill, 12-dig and seven-block effort, while hitting .333 in Brown's win over Penn on Oct. 31.
Afonja also served the last 15 points in Brown's 15-0 run to close out the match against Dartmouth.

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.
Wolfson earned her second Player of the Week honor on Oct. 20. Wolfson led the Bears to a 2-0 weekend with sweeps against Harvard and Dartmouth. The sophomore finished the weekend with a team-high 4.17 kills per set, hitting .423 (25-3-52). Wolfson also added 10 blocks (1.67/set) and tied the team lead with six service aces.

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) Jessie Golden '26       1,447
            4) Kathryn Conner '15   1,432
            5) Elvina Kung '04          1,397

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 earned 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.
Golden added her 26th-career 20+ dig match with a 23-dig effort against Dartmouth. It is the most digs by Golden in a three-set match this year and the most by the senior in a three-set match since she had 24 in a win at Penn on Oct. 27, 2023.

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 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.

WINNING WAYS

Brown has now posted five-straight seasons with winning records in Ivy League play after earning its eighth win of the season against Dartmouth. Brown's stretch is the longest in program history with a winning record in Ivy League play. The Bears posted a .500 record or better from 1983-90.
Brown's 13 wins this season has made it seven-straight seasons of double-digit wins for Brown. The last time Brown had seven-straight double-digit win seasons came from 1996-2002.

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.
Wolfson now has 16 matches with double-figure kills this season. It is the most double-figure kill matches by a Brown middle blocker in a season since at least the 2012 season.

TOURNAMENT TIME

Brown clinched a spot in the Ivy League Tournament last weekend and will now be playing for seeding this weekend. The Bears are still in play for hosting with two wins but would need Princeton to lose at least one game.
The Bears have been either the three or four seed in each of the last three tournaments, playing Princeton in the first round all three years.

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