Volleyball Starts Play at Ocean State Cup on Friday

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown volleyball begins its 2025 campaign at the Ocean State Cup hosted by Providence College on Sept. 5-6.

The Bears will start play against Bryant at 7 p.m. on Friday (Sept. 5). Brown will close out play on Saturday (Sept. 6) with games against Providence (1 p.m.) and Rhode Island (4 p.m.) The game against Providence will be streamed on Friars+.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday, Sept. 5
vs. Bryant | 7 p.m. | Live Stats

Saturday, Sept. 6
at Providence | 1 p.m. | Watch | Live Stats
vs. Rhode Island | 4 p.m. | Live Stats

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS

Bryant is 0-3 on the season after dropping matches to Duke, FIU and Houston last weekend. The Bulldogs won just one set in the three matches.
Arianna Ugolini leads Bryant with 2.90 kills per set. The Bulldogs are hitting just .111 as a team and allowing teams to hit .270.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Brown is 17-6 all-time against Bryant, including at 3-0 win last season. The Bears have won five of the last six meetings against the Bulldogs

SCOUTING THE FRIARS

Providence is 1-2 on the year, earning a win over East Texas A&M before falling to North Texas and Little Rock.
Sophia Adkins had a team-high 33 kills last weekend, followed by Lyric Berry with 30 and Audrey Kocon with 29.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Brown is 10-31 all-time against Providence. Brown dropped a five-set match to Providence in the season opener last season. The Bears have lost five of the last six matches with the Friars.

SCOUTING THE RAMS

Rhode Island swept matches against Siena and Central Connecticut State to start the season before losing in four sets to Stony Brook.
McKenna Melton led URI with 25 kills last weekend. Three different Rams averaged over 3.00 assists per set with Kiera McCarles leading the team with 4.33 assists per set.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Brown is 12-18 all-time against Rhode Island with a 3-1 win last season. Brown has won four-straight against Rhode Island.

FIRST SERVE

Brown reached the Ivy League Tournament for the third-straight year last season before falling to the top-seeded Princeton Tigers in the semifinals.
Jessie Golden became the first Bear to win back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year honors after earning the distinction on Thursday. Golden was also named First Team All-Ivy for the second-straight season. Masha Sidorova was also named First Team All-Ivy, while Beau Vanderlaan and Julia Kakkis were named Honorable Mention.

BROWN PICKS UP IVY HONORS IN 2024

Jessie Golden led the Ivy League digs with 4.16 digs per set in the regular season and increasing that number to 4.41 digs per set during Ivy League play. Golden finished the year with 22 matches of double-figure digs and had six matches with at least 20 digs.
Masha Sidorova finished third in the Ivy League with 3.82 kills per set during league play and was second on the team with 2.07 digs per set for the season. The junior led Brown with 21 double-figure kill games and led Brown with nine double-doubles. Sidorova also had four matches with 20+ kills, including a career-high 26 against Princeton. In all four matches with 20 or more kills, Sidorova hit over .300.
Beau Vanderlaan finishes her career with an honorable mention nod after finished third in the Ivy League with 1.10 blocks per set. The senior collected 92 blocks this season and became just the second Bear to ever collect 400 career blocks. She led Brown with a .273 hitting percentage and averaged 2.00 kills per set.
Julia Kakkis shined in her first season at Brown taking over setting duties halfway through the season. Kakkis averaged 8.95 assists per set and finished the season with five-straight 40+ assist matches. The freshman picked up a career-high 53 assists against Princeton on Nov. 3 and finished the year on a 15-match streak of at least 10 assists.

ROAD WARRIORS

Brown will have to get used to being away from home as the Bears will play their first 14 games away from the Pizzitola Sports Center. The Bears will play their first five Ivy League games away from home before taking on Harvard on Oct. 17.

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 currently has 1,093 digs. Golden is just 340 digs away from moving into third all-time in Brown program history.
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.

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.

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 will be making its first trip to Florida since 2018, when the Bears made the trip to Stetson for a three-game tournament. Brown will be playing at UCF in the second weekend of its season this year as the Bears will be taking on three brand new opponents. Brown has never played Arkansas State, UCF or Florida Atlantic. It will be the only three teams on Brown's schedule that they have not played before.

CHECKING OUT THE CONSTITUTION STATE

Brown's final weekend of the non-conference schedule will be a trip to UConn for three games. Over the weekend Brown will take on UConn, Sacred Heart and Marist.
While Brown has faced off against UConn 30 times in program history with the Bears holding a 9-21 record against the Huskies. Brown broke a 12-match losing streak back with a three-set win in 2023 but lost the matchup last year.
Brown's other opponents at UConn have not been on the Bears' schedule for a while. The last time Brown faced off against Sacred Heart was in 2021 when the Bears won in four sets. Brown is 4-2 all-time against the Pioneers.
The Bears have not played Marist since 2004 when Brown lost a four-set match in Poughkeepsie. Brown is 2-1 all-time against Marist.

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