Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Loses Tough Match to Penn

Friday, October 16

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Penn

Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Loses Tough Match to Penn

10/16/2009 8:45:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth women's volleyball battled hard but it was not enough as the visiting Penn Quakers defeated the Big Green, 3-1 on Friday in Leede Arena. The Quakers won the first set and Dartmouth came back to tie it up in Set Two but the visitors proved too tough winning sets three and four. With the victory Penn improves to 13-4 overall, 4-0 in the Ivy League while Dartmouth falls to 7-8, 3-2 Ivy. Game scores were 23-25, 25-19, 22-25 and 18-25.

Dartmouth jumped out to a quick lead in the opening set but Penn roared right back and took over, going up by as much as five before the Big Green called a timeout. Madison Wojciechowski served her team to an 8-2 lead before Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) killed a point and Dartmouth was back in it. After climbing back out to a six-point lead Megan MacGregor (Carlsbad, Calif.) killed a point and then served her team to another as the Big Green was down by three. Jessie Hartman (Woodside, Calif.) helped her team to get to within one before a Penn block gave the visitors the ball back. MacGregor's ace tied the set at 12-12 before a block by Baird and Morgan Covington (Katy, Texas) gave Dartmouth the lead. After a Penn timeout the Big Green continued to lead, running it up to 18-15 before a Quaker kill as the visitors tied the set at 20 and went up by two. The Big Green tied the set at 23 but a big kill by Julia Swanson put it away for Penn.

Kelsey Johnson's (Carlsbad, Calif.) kill to start the second set helped Dartmouth tie it up as Brianne Hucek (Joliet, Ill.) helped her team go up by two. The Quakers came within on at 6-7 but Covington's kill gave the Big Green the ball back. A back-and-forth match ensued as the two sides tied several times. Johnson's solo block put the home team up by two but Penn stayed right with them. Covington had a huge kill that seemed to get the mostly pink crowd into the game. Hucek's ace put her team up by two again as Covington had a another kill to keep Dartmouth in the lead. Another kill by Johnson gave the Big Green its biggest lead of the set at 18-14 as the Quakers called timeout. Alissa Santa Maria (Yorba Linda, Calif.) had an ace that extended Dartmouth's lead to five, 21-17. A Penn error never allowed the visitors to get back into it as the Big Green tied the match with a win apiece.

The Quakers jumped out to a quick lead in the third set but Dartmouth did not allow them to get too far ahead, staying within several points. MacGregor had a kill that got the Big Green within two and Colleen Bryant (Wayne, Pa.) had a kill that had them down by one. Two straight Penn hitting errors allowed Dartmouth to take its first lead of the set as the crowd began to get into it. MacGregor's kill tied the set at 10 but the Quakers won the ball back and took the advantage, going up by three, 13-10. With the score, 15-11 in favor of the visitors head coach Ann Marie Larese took a timeout to try and gain control back. Down by six, Hucek served her team to three points but it was not enough as Penn continued to hold onto the lead and take the victory to go up by two.

The Quakers started the third set much like the last, taking a quick lead. Mary Russell started the visitors off with seven straight points before MacGregor killed a point to give the Big Green its first chance to serve. Down by five Covington, had a huge kill to pull to within four but the Quakers again thwarted the attempt to come back and got the ball right back. A block by Baird and Annie Villaneuva (Santa Barbara, Calif.) gave the home team a chance to get back into it but Dartmouth could not get more than two points to chip into Penn's 14-8 lead. A blocking error on the Quakers and a block by Covington gave the Big Green some life but Penn was again able to thwart the effort. Another solo block by Covington got the crowd excited as the home team found itself down by five but the lead proved insurmountable as the Quakers won the set and the match.

Three Dartmouth players had double-figure kills as MacGregor led with 14 while Covington and Baird added 11 apiece. Santa Maria was the top setter for the Big Green with 37 as she had a double-double with 16 digs. MacGregor had 11 digs as did Hartman.

Dartmouth will be back in action again on Saturday with a 4:00 pm home match against Princeton as the Big Green looks to split an Ivy League weekend.