Volleyball Makes Final Road Trip of Regular Season to Dartmouth and Harvard

Friday, November 7

Hanover, N.H.

6 p.m.

Brown University

Dartmouth

Photo by: Jamie Fiedorek

Volleyball Makes Final Road Trip of Regular Season to Dartmouth and Harvard

11/6/2025 1:08:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown volleyball hits the road for the final time this season as the Bears will travel to Dartmouth on Friday (Nov. 7) and Harvard (Nov. 8).

Both games this weekend are set to start at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.

THE FIRST SERVE

Brown heads back on the road for the first time since Oct. 10-11 as the Bears will play their final road weekend of the regular season at Dartmouth and Harvard
Brown had its five-match win streak snapped with a 3-1 loss to Princeton on Sunday. The loss keeps the Bears tied for second in the Ivy League, one game behind Cornell.
Brown faced off against Harvard and Dartmouth earlier this season at home and the Bears cruised to two sweeps. In the six sets, Brown only allowed 20 points in one set, the second set against Harvard.
With a win over Dartmouth, Brown will clinch a winning record in Ivy play for the fifth-straight season. It would be the first time in program history that Brown has had five-straight winning seasons in Ivy play.

SCOUTING DARTMOUTH

Dartmouth comes into the weekend with a 7-13 overall record and a 4-6 mark in Ivy League play. The Big Green have won two-straight games, with wins over Cornell and Columbia
The Big Green are led on offense by Kauany Guts, who is averaging 3.03 kills per set.
Dartmouth is hitting just .149 on the season, while allowing opponents to hit .234.

INSIDE THE SERIES

Brown has won 11-straight matches against the Big Green, including a 3-0 win earlier this season. The Bears last lost to Dartmouth in a five-set match on the road on Nov. 2, 2018.
The Bears and Big Green have only played one five-set match in the last 11 meetings, a 3-2 win by Brown in Providence last season.

SCOUTING HARVARD

Harvard is 5-13 overall and 4-6 in Ivy play. The Crimson will host Yale on Friday before taking on the Bears.
The Crimson are led by Sofia Rossi's 3.02 kills per set. Sophia Wei (5.08/set) and Nicole Cornell (4.13/set) guide the offense in assists.
Harvard is leading the Ivy League with 2.40 blocks per set and Taylor Larkin is second in the league at 1.24. Ryleigh Patterson is second on the team with 1.03 blocks per set.

INSIDE THE SERIES

Brown is 9-1 in the last 10 meetings with the Crimson and have won the last three contests. The lone loss was a 3-0 defeat on Nov. 3, 2023 in Cambridge.
Six of the last seven wins against Harvard have been sweeps by the Bears. Brown won in four sets at home last season.

BEARS IN THE NCAA

Sophia Wolfson sits in 22nd in the NCAA with 1.39 blocks per set. Wolfson also leads the league in that category.
Jessie Golden is second in the Ivy League and 24th in the NCAA with 4.77 digs per set.
Wolfson's .376 hitting percentage is 48th in the NCAA.
Julia Kakkis is 65th in the NCAA and second in the Ivy League with 9.61 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 her last three matches, Afonja has recorded double-figure kills, including a career-high 14 kills against Princeton in her last match.
Afjonja also posted an 11-kill, 12-dig and seven-block effort, while hitting .333 in Brown's win over Penn on Oct. 31.

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.

HOME SWEET HOME

After playing its first 14 games of the season on the road, Brown finally played its first home games of the year when the Bears hosted 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) Jessie Golden '26       1,422
            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 four-straight seasons with winning records in Ivy League play after finishing 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 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 12 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

The Bears are inching closer to reaching the Ivy League tournament for the third-straight season. Brown has faced off against Princeton in each of the last three tournaments, making the final the first two years and losing to the Tigers last season.

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