Dartmouth Hits the Road for Penn and Princeton

Friday, Sept. 30: Dartmouth (6-5, 0-1) at Penn (5-8, 0-1)
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Philadelphia, Pa.
All-Time Series: Penn Leads, 31-7
Last Meeting: Nov. 7, 2015 - L, 3-0
Live Stats
ILDN

Saturday, Sept. 17: Dartmouth at Princeton
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: Princeton, N.J.
All-Time Series: Princeton leads, 29-8
Last Meeting: Nov. 8, 2015 - L, 3-0
Live Stats
ILDN

THIS WEEKEND
Dartmouth volleyball will play its first road Ivy League matches of the 2016 season, facing Penn on Friday and Princeton the next day.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green opened conference play last Friday with a single match against Harvard, falling in three sets (25-27, 16-25, 23-25) at Leede Arena. Sara Lindquist had a strong performance, ending the night with a team-leading 12 kills, five digs and two block assists. Corinne Cox led with her 15 assists and Sierra Lyle had 10 digs.

The first set started off in Dartmouth's favor, with the first six points going in the home team's direction off kills by Lindquist and Kaira Lujan and four Harvard errors. The Green remained comfortably ahead until halfway through the set, when five straight points by the Crimson tied the score at 17-all. There were five more ties before Dartmouth took a 25-24 lead following a kill by Emily Astarita and a Crimson error, but three consecutive points by Harvard gave the first set to the opponent (27-25).

Although the Crimson took the first two points of the second set, the Big Green soon caught up and, before long, had a 6-4 lead. There were four more ties before the 10th point but, following a four-point run on the other side of the net, Harvard started to pull away (14-10). The Green got a few points closer, but the Crimson got three straight points to win the second set (25-16).

Dartmouth started the third set with a slight advantage courtesy of kills by Astarita and Lindquist and a handful of errors by Harvard (6-2). The Crimson tied the score at 8-8 and there were two more ties in quick succession before Harvard got a slight lead (13-10). The Big Green came back with a vengeance to tie the score and then get ahead (18-16). Following a five-point Crimson run, Dartmouth once again tied the score thanks to some well-timed Harvard errors (21-21). Harvard got to match point and, although freshman Abby Kott got a kill to put the home team in a good position to win the set, a kill on the other side of the net shut the match down (25-23).

SCOUTING PENN
The Quakers enter their second straight home weekend with an overall record of 5-8 and 0-1 in Ivy play. Even though it opened the season with four consecutive losses at its first tournament, Penn won four of its next seven matches over the following two weekends. After tournament action was all said and done, the Quakers defeated Delaware, 3-1, before opening conference play with a 3-2 loss to Princeton last Saturday.

LAST TIME VS. THE QUAKERS
Dartmouth went 0-2 against Penn last year. The last time the two teams met was on Halloween at the Palestra, where the Quakers defeated the Big Green, 3-0 (24-26, 19-25, 18-25). Paige Caridi recorded a double-double (12 kills, 13 digs), while Leonard had 19 digs and Kayden Cook had 18 assists.

SCOUTING PRINCETON
The Tigers have had a good start to their season, entering the weekend with a 7-3 overall mark and 1-0 in conference action. Princeton won its first two matches of the year and, after dropping the next three in a row, are now on a five-match winning streak. The Tigers had a 3-2 win over the Quakers to kick off Ivy play.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE TIGERS
On Oct. 30, 2015, Dartmouth fell to Princeton on the road by a score of 3-0 (23-25, 21-25, 25-27), dropping three very close sets. Astarita had 14 kills and Cook finished the evening with 33 assists. Leonard had 13 digs to lead both squads.

DORON AND COMPANY
The Big Green has a whole new look behind the bench this season. Gilad Doron is in his first year at the helm of the program after coaching at the University of San Francisco for nine years. Joining him in their first year as assistant coaches are Eyal Zimet and Tara Hittle.

CAPTAINS
The 21-player squad – made up of 16 returnees and five rookies – is led by Astarita and Lujan, who are both entering their final season on the court. So far this season, Astarita leads the team in kills (116), kills per set (3.14) and total attacks (334), and is second in block assists (29). Lujan is first among the Big Green in block assists (34) and total blocks (40), and is second in kills (58).

IN THE CONFERENCE
Dartmouth is doing well among its Ancient Eight opponents:
Opponent hitting percentage – 1st (.141)
Assists – 6th (397, 10.73)
Kills – 5th (436, 11.78)
Blocks – 2nd (82.0, 2.22)
Service Aces – 2nd (56, 1.51)
Digs – 4th (549, 14.84)

Individually, the Big Green have a number of players near the top in a number of categories:
Kills – Astarita, 2nd (116)
Kills/Set – Astarita, 3rd (3.14)
Service Aces – Cox, 3rd (16)
Services Aces/Set – Cox, 2nd (0.43)
Total Blocks – Lujan, 1st (40.0)
Blocks/Set – Lujan, 1st (1.14)
Total Blocks – Kott, 3rd (30.0)
Blocks/Set – Kott, T2nd (1.00)

FOLLOW ALONG
Live stats will be available for both matches on DartmouthSports.com. Those who subscribe to the Ivy League Digital Network (ILDN) can also watch the matches online.

NEXT UP FOR DARTMOUTH
Next Friday and Saturday, Oct. 7-8, Dartmouth will be on the road again, this time facing Yale and Brown.

Schedules