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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Quaker volleyball team (10-7, 2-5 Ivy League) hosts Princeton this Friday for a Morgan’s Message Mental Health Awareness game. Morgan’s Message is an organization working to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health within the student-athlete community. Morgan’s Message was created in honor of Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke women’s lacrosse player who tragically lost her life to suicide in 2019. Her story inspired a mission to ensure that no student-athlete feels alone in their mental health struggles. Morgan’s Message works to normalize conversations about mental health, empower student-athletes to seek help, and promote the importance of treating mental health with the same care as physical health.
 
Penn (10-7, 2-5 Ivy League) vs. Princeton (7-8, 5-2 Ivy League)
Friday, Oct. 9 | 6 p.m. | The Palestra
Stream: ESPN+ 
Stats

LAST TIME OUT

» Against Harvard, Zada Sanger led the Penn offense totaling 17 kills, 21 points, and hitting .255

» Haley Kerstetter also added 12 kills, 15 points, and hit .524

» Adell Murray tallied 2.5 blocks

» Lauren Van Wie led the back row with 17 digs, and Jenna Garner and Nathalie Tsai each tallied 13 digs 

» Against Dartmouth, Haley Kerstetter had 11 kills, hitting .381, and 12.5 points

» Adell Murray tallied 8 kills 

» Elsa McDermott tallied 11 digs

» Jenna Garner had 11 kills and tallied 14 digs, making it her seventh double double of the season.

ALL-LEAGUE NODS

– Adell Murray (.350) is currently second the league in hitting percentage. 

– Addison Pollock leads the conference in digs (304) (5.85 avg/s) and is first in NCAA DI in digs per set.

– Penn currently leads in digs (1162) (16.84 avg/s), which is also eighth in NCAA DI, and is second assists (832) (12.06 avg/s), kills (881) (12.77 avg/s). 

HISTORY

-Penn is 13-37 all-time vs. Princeton, losing their last matchup 3-2 September 25th, 2026

– The Quaker’s longest win streak against the Tigers is four matches, spanning October 4th , 2002 – November 19th, 2003.

 

COACHING STAFF NUGGETS

– Penn is in its second season under head coach Tyler Hagstrom, who played collegiately for the Cal Baptist men’s team. He was hired on July 16, 2025 after previous head coach Meredith Schamun left the Quakers to become the associate head coach at the University of Illinois.

– Hagstrom comes to Penn after a successful five-year run at Bucknell that included the Bison going 21-5 in 2024 and setting a program record with 13 wins in Patriot League play. Hagstrom left Bucknell as the program’s all-time leader in win percentage (59-48, .551).

– He holds a 76-61 career record, including a 14-13 mark with the Quakers.

– Hagstrom is joined by assistant coaches Wyatt Emenaker and Alyssa Bert. Emenaker is in his third season and came to Penn from VCU. Bert enters her second season, joining the program after finishing her career playing at Syracuse as a graduate student. She also played at Colorado State.

 

2025 RUN DOWN

– In year one under head coach Tyler Hagstrom, the Quakers posted a 12-12 (6-8 Ivy League) record. They lost their season opener to Colorado (3-0) before notching sweeps over Fresno State and UC Irvine at the Anteater Classic. UPennwent on to finish 6-4 in non-conference play, earning sweeps in all six wins. The Quakers started conference play slowly, losing their first three league matches before taking down Harvard on the road, starting a span where the team won three of its next four games.

CALI DREAMIN’

– Penn boasts eight players who hail from California, including: seniors Bella Rittenberg (Fallbrook) and ZadaSanger (Berkeley); juniors Jenna Garner (Pasadena) and Hailey Hilsabeck (Lafayette); sophomore Taylor Roloff (Alameda) and freshmen Pilar Kelley (San Francisco), Reese Stringer (Manhattan Beach) and Lauryn Lewis (Los Angeles).

 

PRESEASON PICKS

– Penn was picked fifth in the Ivy League’s preseason media poll, which featured two voters from each of the schools. The Quakers garnered 65 points, followed by Harvard (49), Dartmouth (36) and Columbia (20). Princeton (122 points) had 11 first place votes while Yale (115) had four first place votes. Brown (82) had one first place vote.

 

PUTTING THE LEAGUE ON NOTICE

– Last year the Quakers ranked first in the conference with 17.12 digs per set, over two dps higher than the second place team in Princeton (15.09).

– Penn ranked second in the Ivy with 12.91 assists per set and 13.69 kills per set.

– Penn currently leads in opponent hitting percentage (.166), assists (683) (12.42 avg/s), kills (683) (13.13 avg/s), and digs (977) (17.73 avg/s), which is also third in NCAA DI.

– Addison Pollock leads the conference in digs (304) (5.85 avg/s), and is first in NCAA DI in digs per set.

RETURNERS SET TO LEAD THE WAY

– Penn brings back a ton of production, including its top seven scorers. Zada Sanger (3.32 kps), Jenna Garner (2.67 kps), Ellie Siskin (2.61 kps) and Adell Murray (2.06) all averaged over two kills per set in 2025.

-As the team’s main setter from a year ago, junior Emery Moore returns after notching over eight assists (8.24 aps) a set.

– Defensively, seven of the team’s top eight blockers are back as well. Hailey Kerstetter (0.68 bps) and Adell Murray (0.66 bps) lead the charge out of the middle.

– The top digging team in the Ivy brings back five players who tallied over 100 digs, including Addison Pollock (360), Jenna Garner (274) and Emery Moore (236).

 

MATCH HIGHS

– The Quakers tallied 71 kills against Rhode Island Sept. 13th, the third highest of any Ivy team in a match this season.

– Penn had 90 digs vs. Quinnipiac, and 83 vs. Rhode Island, the top two of any Ivy team so far this season.

– Addison Pollock’s 34 digs vs. Quinnipiac were the most by any conference player in a match this season.

– Haley Kerstetter‘s 0.833 hitting percentage vs. Lafayette is the highest of any conference player in a match this season.

STATEMENT WINS 

– A couple notable wins from year one of the Tyler Hagstrom era included victories over three-time defending conference champion Yale (3-2 on Nov. 1) and a sweep over then Ivy League leader Cornell on Oct. 18.

– Earlier this year, Penn Volleyball beat Rutgers 3-1, taking it’s first win over a Power Four team since 2010 (v. West Virginia), and first program win against a Big Ten team. 

PALESTRA CELEBRATING YEAR 100 IN 2026-27

– The Quakers will celebrate 100 years of the Historic Palestra this season, the home of Penn Volleyball since 1990.

 

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

– Penn announced that junior outside Jenna Garner and senior libero/defensive specialists Lauren Van Wie and Elsa McDermott have been named captains for the 2026 season.

IVY LEAGUE ON ESPN

A reminder that the Ivy League is paired with ESPN and you will be able to find all Penn home games, as well as road Ivy matches and select non-conference road games, on ESPN+ this fall with the same high broadcast quality you’ve come to expect. ESPN+ is a subscription-based service that offers monthly and yearly packages.

For the latest on Penn Volleyball, follow @PennVolleyball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.

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