VOLLEYBALL: Weekend matchups end in split with Princeton, Penn
Over the weekend, the women’s volleyball team beat Princeton and lost to Penn at home.
Yale Athletics
Over the weekend, the women’s volleyball team (10–8, 6–4 Ivy) defeated Princeton (11–6, 6–3) 3-0 on Halloween before losing to the University of Pennsylvania (10–10, 4–6) 2–3 on Saturday.
The Bulldogs were a scary sight as they dominated in the sweep against the Tigers, 25-22, 25-14, 25-14. In the first set, the Bulldogs jumped out with a 4–0 scoring run with Yuri Park ’29 serving. She proceeded to have a great night from the service line. The two teams traded points until late in the set, when Yale pulled ahead at 22-23.
In the second set, Park had a nine-point service run to help the Bulldogs dominate. Finally, in the third set, the Bulldogs had additional service aces by Halle Sherlock ’26 and Mila Mijailovic ’28, combined with defensive pressure, to put a stop to the Tigers’ offense.
Ava Poinsett ’29 led the team with 15 kills and nine digs. Cam Bolane ’28 and Lauren Kellen ’26 had no hitting errors with eight and six kills, respectively. The Bulldogs also led Princeton in kills, aces, blocks, assists and digs. Park had four of Yale’s nine service aces.
On Saturday, the Bulldogs lost against Penn in a hard-fought, five-set battle with scores of 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 19-25, 11-15. The first four sets were a back-and-forth clash. Yale responded to a first-set loss with a dominating offensive performance. Then, the team had a great defensive performance in set three to reach a 2-1 set lead. However, they were unable to close it out in the fourth set.
Although Yale led in every statistical category, Penn ended the fourth set and started the fifth with a lot of momentum. The Quakers went on a 5–0 run early in the final set and Yale was unable to respond. However, key plays from the service line by Isabella Mendoza ’26 and at the net by Gigi Barr ’26 brought the Bulldogs within two.
Poinsett tied her season-high in kills with 24 and had 15 digs. Laurece Abraham ’27 had 19 kills, hitting 0.500, and Bolane also had 13 kills. Five players had 10 or more digs against the Quakers’ offense.
The Bulldogs will close out their away slate next weekend against Harvard (5–13, 4–6) in Cambridge and Dartmouth (7–13, 4–6) in Hanover.