Two up, two down at Volleyball home tourney

Pepperdine, a top-30 team in national polls, beat the Penn volleyball team 3-0 on Friday night at the Penn-Sheraton Invitational. However, the fact that the Quakers came within three points of winning game two against a California powerhouse gave the crowd a glimpse of what Penn is capable of achieving.

"Playing Pepperdine was really good for us because we stayed with them in the second game and played really well at times," Penn coach Kerry Carr said. "I hope what the team takes out of it is the positive that we can be a very good team."

Overall, Penn finished the home tournament 2-2, to bring its record to 3-7 for the season.

The Red and Blue started the tournament Friday afternoon with a victory over Canisius, 3-1. Senior captains Cara Thomason and Michelle Kauffman tallied 14 and 12 kills, respectively, while freshman Kathryn Turner and sophomore Anna Shlimak contributed 11 apiece. Thomason also recorded 17 defensive digs.

On Saturday, the Quakers routed St. Francis 3-0 but then fell to Towson by the same margin. Despite the loss, the team recorded 10 blocks and "took out its serving mistakes," according to Carr.

However, the Red and Blue still need to work on passing.

"When we're passing, we scramble," Carr said. "If we don't pass well, we're going to lose to teams like Towson. Offensively, we're better than them but they don't make as many mistakes as we do."

Thomason echoed her coach's remarks.

"Sometimes our strength was our passing and sometimes it was our blocking," she said. "We had a harder time having all of that come together. At different times we had different strengths. We need to work on consistency."

Sophomore setter Linda Zhang was the only Quakers player to make the all-tournament team.

This weekend marks the end of the Quakers' tough tournament play and the beginning of their drive to reclaim the Ivy League Championship, which they won in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Penn visits Princeton (8-1) Friday at 7 p.m. The Tigers won the Marist Tournament in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., this weekend.

"We need to come to practice consistently at a higher level all week so we can bring that to the games," Carr said. "We have to play better; Princeton just doesn't make mistakes. Offensively, they're not as good as us but they pass and play defense. If we pass and play defense we'll beat them. It is as simple as that."

With a grueling tournament schedule behind them, the Quakers must learn to make outstanding plays consistently in order to reclaim the Ivy League.

Canisius 24 30 22 15 -- 1PENN 30 26 30 30 -- 3

Pepperdine 30 30 30 -- 3PENN 16 27 18 -- 0

St. Francis 17 14 27 -- 0PENN 30 30 30 -- 3

Towson 30 30 30 -- 3PENN 25 19 22 -- 0

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