Volleyball Opens Home Conference Play

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PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania volleyball team (8-3, 0-1 Ivy League) opens home conference play this weekend hosting Cornell and Columbia.
 
GAME 1: Penn (8-3, 0-1 Ivy League) vs. Cornell (5-5, 1-0 Ivy League)
Friday, Oct. 2 | 6 p.m. | The Palestra
Stream:  ESPN+  
Stats 
 
GAME 2: Penn (8-3, 0-1 Ivy League) vs. Columbia (6-4, 0-1 Ivy League)
Saturday, Oct. 3 | 5 p.m. | The Palestra
Stream:  ESPN+  
Stats 
  
LAST TIME OUT
– Against Princeton, Haley Kerstetter led the team in hitting percentage hitting a .526 and tallied 4.5 blocks.
– Zada Sanger had 13 kills
–  Addison Pollock led the defense with 18 digs, her 11th with 10+ this season.
– Against the Tigers, Penn totaled 55 kills, 12.0 blocks, 71 digs and six aces, while Princeton had 59 kills, 9.0 blocks, 70 digs and 11 aces.
 
ALL-LEAGUE NODS
– Adell Murray (.443) and Haley Kerstetter (.416) currently leads the league in hitting percentage. 
– Addison Pollock leads the conference in digs (243) (5.40 avg/s), and is fourth in NCAA DI in digs per set
– Penn currently leads in hitting percentage (.256), assists (562) (12.49 avg/s), kills (593) (13.18 avg/s), and digs (767) (17.04 avg/s), which is also sixth in NCAA DI.
 
HISTORY
-Penn is 48-38 all-time vs. Cornell, losing their last matchup 3-1 November 7th, 2025.
– The Quaker’s longest win streak against Big Red is eight matches, spanning November 1st , 2008 – October 5th, 2023.
-Penn is 36-13 all-time vs. Columbia, winning their last matchup 3-1 November 8th, 2025.
– The Quaker’s longest win streak against the Lions is 11 matches, spanning November 12th, 2005 – November 10th, 2010.
 
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.
 
WEEKLY AWARDS
– Pollock is currently ranked first in the Ivy League with 5.63 digs per set, and fourth in the NCAA with 5.45 digs per set this year
 
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. UPenn went 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 Zada Sanger (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 points (518), hitting percentage (.277), assists (388) (13.38 avg/s), kills (406) (14.00 avg/s), and digs (490) (16.90 avg/s)  

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 61 kills against Navy Sept. 5th, the second highest of any Ivy team in a four-set 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 IN YEAR ONE

-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.

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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