If there's one volleyball team in the Ivy League known for dominant blocking, it's Penn.
But this season, another squad is vying for that title.
Tonight at 7 p.m., a blocker's battle will take place at the Palestra between the Quakers (8-4, 2-1 Ivy League) and Yale (6-7, 0-4).
The Elis have the top middle blocker in the league, senior Carissa Abbott, who leads her team in blocks per game (1.88) and kills per contest (2.88).
The six-foot captain has played a large role in creating the 165-99 blocking discrepancy between Yale and its opponents.
But Yale does have a weakness -- its hitting. With the graduation of 2000 first team All-Ivy selection Stephanie McMahon last May, Yale has been subpar offensively.
Penn, too, has struggled to consistently put away the ball and has been working to correct that in practice this past week.
"We're changing a lot of things on offense," Penn coach Kerry Major said on Wednesday. "I just hope that it will be in time for this weekend. We are improving daily, and that's all I ask for."
In the second half of this weekend's Ivy League doubleheader, Penn will face Brown (9-7, 4-0) tomorrow at 4 p.m.
"They're [basically] the same team as last year..." Major said. "They're kind of like us in that they've really gelled, and their freshman outside hitter [Diane Schneider] is hitting a lot smarter."
Brown's strengths are almost completely opposite to those of Yale. The Bears have outlasted the opposition predominantly with strong hitting.
At the forefront of Brown's attack is 6-foot-2 junior middle hitter Jessie Cooper, who is averaging a very respectable 4.28 kills per game and is hitting .272.
She is leading the Bears' quest for the Ivy League title, which Brown last captured in 1998 under the wing of four-time first team All-Ivy selection Tomo Nakanishi.
But the Bears' quest goes through Penn and the rest of the extremely competitive Ivy League.
"Everyone is within millimeters of strength of everyone else in this league," Major said. "Whoever wants it more, prepares the best and performs the best on that day is the one that's going to win."
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