Dartmouth Starts Weekend with Sweep of Penn

Friday, October 29

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

11-7,3-6Ivy League

Penn

5-13,2-7Ivy League

Penn

Dartmouth

Bomi Ogunlari

Photo by: John and Matt Risley

10/29/2021 8:33:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Highlights

Ellie Blain and Bomi Ogunlari combined for 25 kills without an error

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth volleyball team put together one of its best matches of the season in sweeping the visiting Penn Quakers on Friday night at Leede Arena, 25-20, 25-13, 25-21. Sophomores Ellie Blain and Bomi Ogunlari combined to hammer home 25 kills without an error as the Big Green (11-7, 3-6 Ivy) produced a season-best attack percentage of .371 in winning for the third time in their last four outings.

Penn (5-13, 2-7 Ivy), which dropped its fifth straight match, was led by Madeline McGregor with a game-high 20 kills, more than half of the Quakers' total.

"We passed extremely well tonight, which allowed us to run a very balanced and efficient offensive game," Big Green head coach Gilad Doron said after the match. "I also thought we served well and forced Penn to play out of their system for a majority of the night. I am looking forward to tomorrow's match to see how we come out against Princeton."

The first set was a back-and-forth affair early on with the team's trading points until Dartmouth ripped off four straight on a Blain kill, ace by freshman Emma Engstrom, a block courtesy of senior Francesca Meldrum and freshman Piper Stevens, and a Penn error to give the Green a 12-9 advantage.

Following a timeout, the Quakers responded with three consecutive points of their own to knot the score again at 12 apiece. The alternating points began again until Dartmouth took advantage of a pair of Penn errors to take a 17-15 lead. A Blain kill gave the Big Green its largest edge of the set at 23-18, and it was Blain who provided the final point with another emphatic spike.

In the second set, Dartmouth took control from the outset by rattling off the first seven points and never let the Quakers get back into it. Twice the Big Green led by as many as 13 in the set at 21-8 and 24-11 — both times on Blain kills — before a Penn service error brought the set to its inevitable conclusion at 25-13 with Dartmouth posting a robust .522 attack percentage.

The Big Green made sure that there would be no comeback on this evening, though the Quakers would not go quietly. A 6-2 Dartmouth advantage shrunk to one point at 8-7 before the Green claimed seven of the next eight points, the last coming on an Ogunlari kill for a 15-8 lead. Penn clawed back with the next four points, closing the gap to three, and though it would get within three four more times, it could not overcome the terrific offensive performance by Dartmouth.

Tomorrow night, the Big Green will entertain Princeton (13-4, 7-2 Ivy), which fell out of first place this evening thanks to getting swept at Harvard tonight. The match that will be streamed live on ESPN+ at 5 p.m.

Notes: The victory avenged a hard-fought, five-set loss to the Quakers four weeks ago in Philadelphia … the win also ended a personal four-game skid against Penn and was the Big Green's 10th win in 52 meetings with the Quakers.