MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #18: Cornell at Penn
MATCH TIME: Friday, Oct. 23, 2009; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: The Palestra (Philadelphia, Pa.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 31-23
LAST MEETING: Penn won 3-2, on Nov. 1, 2008
2009 RECORDS: Cornell 6-11 (3-3 Ivy); Penn 14-4 (5-0 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: www.PennAthletics.com
LIVE VIDEO: None

MATCH #19: Cornell at Princeton
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009; 4:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Dillon Gym (Princeton, N.J.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 39-17
LAST MEETING: Princeton won 3-0, on Oct. 31, 2008
2009 RECORDS: Cornell 6-11 (3-3 Ivy)*; Princeton 4-12 (2-3 Ivy)*
LIVE STATS: www.GoPrincetonTigers.com
LIVE VIDEO: None

* Records prior to Friday, Oct. 23 

 

MATCH NOTES
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red hits the road for its first full Ivy League weekend as it travels to Penn and Princeton this weekend. The game with the Ivy League leading Quakers is slated for Friday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., while the game with the Tigers will take place on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 4:00 p.m.

SCOUTING PENN: The Quakers sit atop the Ivy League standing with a 14-4 record overall and a mark of 5-0 in the conference. The bring a five-game winning streak into Newman Arena after defeating both Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend, winning both matches 3-1. Penn is led by a trio of hitters that average more than three kills per set – Elizabeth Semmens (3.69), Lauren Martin (3.42) and Julia Swanson (3.00). Running the offense is setter Megan Tryan, who ranks first in the Ivy League with 11.22 assists per game, while libero Madison Wojciechowski is second in the league with 5.33 digs per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE QUAKERS: Cornell and Penn first met in 1974, a 2-0 Big Red victory, in the first year of the Ivy League Tournament. The Quakers went on to dominate the series for the rest of the 1970s and '80s, accounting for its 31-23 all-time lead, but since 1990 the series has been much closer, with Penn holding the slim, 15-12 advantage.

LAST TIME VS. PENN: The Big Red lost a 3-2 heartbreaker on Nov. 1, 2008 at the Palestra in a match that came down to extra points in the first and fifth sets. Meagan Tatum notched 17 kills for Cornell while hitting a season-high .417. Emily Borman joined Tatum to lead the Big Red hitters with 13 kills while hitting .417, and Erin McCarthy added 11 kills. Libero Megan Mushovic led the Cornell back row with 25 digs, and Jordan Reeder added 12. Hilary Holland tallied 48 assists with 11 digs and three aces. Kelly Hansen led Cornell at the net with 11 total blocks. Penn was led by Anne Magnuson with 14 kills, while Kathryn Turner and Julia Swanson each added 13. Libero Madi Wojchichowski also set a new school record with 40 digs for Penn.

SCOUTING PRINCETON: The Tigers are 4-12 on the season, but have won two of their last three and is one match below the .500 mark in Ivy League play (2-3). The attack is led by Sheena Donohue with 3.44 kills per set, while Lydia Rudnick is chipping in 3.22 kills per set. Setter Molly Bagshaw ranks third in the conference with 9.72 assists per set, while Donohue leads the teams in digs with 4.19 per set.

THE SERIES VS. THE TIGERS: Like its series with Penn, Cornell's series with Princeton also began in the 1974 season during the first-ever Ivy League tournament, a 2-0 Big Red victory. The Tigers have dominated the series, owning a 39-17 record against Cornell, and have swept the past two seasons.

LAST TIME VS. PRINCETON: Princeton played past the Cornell, 3-0, on Oct. 31, 2008. Cornell was led by Emily Borman with 10 kills, while hitting .375. Princeton and the Big Red were tied at 16 all in the first set before the Tigers pulled ahead to a 25-20 win. In the second set, Princeton took an early lead but the Big Red pulled within one, 19-18. The Tigers then switched gears onto a 25-21 victory. Borman grabbed six kills in just seven attempts to hit .857 for the set. Princeton took the advantage in the third set and played on to another 25-21 win. Junior libero Megan Mushovic had 13 digs in the set. Mushovic totaled 19 digs for Cornell, while freshman Risa Ka'awa added 10. Senior captain Hilary Holland registered 21 assists and eight digs. Princeton was led by Lindsey Ensign with 15 kills while hitting .423, and Sheeena Donohue added 10 kills. Hillary Ford totaled a match-high 22 digs for the Tigers.

CORNELL'S LAST GAME: The Big Red won the first two sets, and then erased an eight-point deficit in the fourth set to defeat Brown, 3-1, on Saturday in Newman Arena. Game scores were 25-16, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23. Deveney Pula led the Cornell attack with 11 kills on 38 attempts, while Alessa Cekauskas tallied nine kills and Kelly Hansen chipped in eight. Cekauskas and Hansen also registered six and five block assists, respectively. Lucy Zheng got the starting setting duties for the match and responded with a career-high 36 assists, while Megan Mushovic registered a team-high 24 digs. Pula also reached double-digit digs with 10. Brown (4-12, 0-5 Ivy) was led by Moira Gallagher's 12 kills and just two errors on 30 attempts for a .333 hitting percentage. Spencer McAndrews had a game-high 37 assists and Carly Cotton posted 25 digs.

MEET THE NEW BOSS: After serving as an assistant coach for the past five seasons, Sarah Bernson was named the ninth Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach of Volleyball at Cornell. In her five seasons as an assistant with the Big Red, Bernson helped the program to three Ivy titles (2004, 2005, 2006) and two NCAA tournament appearances (2005 and 2006). She has helped develop 16 All-Ivy performers over that span. Bernson was in charge of the program's recruiting and worked with the outside hitters, including the Big Red's all-time kills leader and first volleyball All-American in school history, Elizabeth Bishop '07.

IVY LEADER BOARD: Cornell has several players making their mark on the conference leader board. Jordan Reader ranks fifth in assists per game (7.60), while Megan Mushovic is sixth overall in digs per game (4.43). Mushovic also ranks ninth in the conference in service aces (0.28). The Big Red also has two players ranked in the top-10 for blocks, with Madeleine Przybyl sitting in sixth (0.83), slightly ahead of Juliana Rogers, who ranks eighth (0.80).

THE ART OF ZHENG: Cornell freshman setter Lucy Zheng saw significant action last weekend vs. Brown, playing in all four sets and handing out a career-high 36 assists. The 36 assists is also the second-highest assist total for a Big Red player this season, second only to Jordan Reeder, who tallied 39 assists vs. Dartmouth on Oct. 10.

TRIPLE DIP: The Big Red had three players register double-digit kills in its last match, a 3-1 victory over Dartmouth, as Megan Mushovic tallied a game-high 30, while Jordan Reeder and Risa Ka'awa registered 24 and 17 digs, respectively. The last time Cornell had three players register at least 10 digs in a four-set match also came against the Big Green when Mushovic (19), Hilary Holland (17) and Erin McCarthy (10) reached the mark in a 3-1 Big Red victory.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jordan Reeder was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the first time in her career, after helping the Big Red earn the first conference win of head coach Sarah Bernson's career as the team defeated Columbia, 3-0, on Oct. 3. Reeder had the best match of her career, as she posted 34 assists to lead the Big Red offense. The sophomore setter also registered seven digs, two block assists, one service ace, and had two kills with no errors on four attempts (.500).

RECORD SETTER: Three-time all-conference libero Megan Mushovic set the Cornell record for career digs last season, tallying 1,612 digs in just three years. With her 22 digs vs. Hartford on Sept. 26, she surpassed the Ivy League record for career digs with 1,777, passing Brown's Tomo Nakanishi '99 at 1,762 … Mushovic also owns the top two spots in Cornell's list of single season digs, with 598 in 2007 and 549 in 2008.

ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM: Deveney Pula was named to two all-tournament teams this season, making the Cornell Invitational team after earning similar honors at the Binghamton Invitational. At the Cornell Invitational, Pula led the Big Red with 26 kills on 91 attempts over three matches, to go along with 22 digs. At the Binghamton Invitational, Pula registered 26 kills on 92 attempts with just 10 errors for a kill percentage of .174. She also registered 32 digs, two service aces, two block assists and one assist.

MISSING MISSE: Jessica Misse had not seen the court in two years due to a myriad of injuries, but she made her return to the court at the Binghamton Invitational on the weekend of Sept. 11-12. The senior middle blocker saw action in all three games that weekend and posted 12 kills and four blocks during the tournament. So far this season, Misse has seen action in 13 matches, registering 65 kills and just 25 errors on 158 attempts, for a team-best .253 kill percentage.

DIGS A LOT: Despite falling to Morehead State in the season opener, the match proved to be yet another opportunity for senior libero Megan Mushovic to write her name in the Cornell record books, as she posted the third-best performance in school history for digs in a three game match, finishing the day with 26.

SAFE SERVING: The Big Red has done an outstanding job of keeping serving errors to a minimum, registering just 110 on the season (1.8 per set). At the same time, Big Red opponents have posted 139 serving errors (2.3 per set).

SETTING UP: Sophomore Jordan Reeder saw the first significant action of her career, surpassing her career assist total during the opening weekend. Reeder, who entered the Patriot Invitational with 22 career assists, racked up 68 assists on the weekend, including a career-high 33 vs. George Mason (four sets).

HI! MY NAME IS: There is a new face on the Cornell sideline, as Chris Duenow, the all-time winningest head volleyball coach at Concordia University (Ore.), joins Coach Bernson's staff as an assistant coach. Duenow was the head coach at Concordia for seven seasons, posting a 108-89 record overall and a 73-39 mark in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, including the 2002 league title. That 2002 team went 24-3 overall and posted a perfect 18-0 league mark, extending its conference win streak to 65 regular season victories. He helped mentor 14 first-team all-league selections, six first-team all-region picks, one All-American and one conference Rookie of the Year.

SEASON OPENERS: Cornell is 25-12-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 12-3 in the first match of the season.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Seniors Megan Mushovic and Juliana Rogers have been named co-captains for the 2009 season. Mushovic has been one of the top liberos in the nation over the past three seasons, while Rogers became one of the top offensive weapons for the Big Red as a junior leading the team in kills per set (2.66) and placing second in total kills (221).

FRESH FACES: The Big Red added seven freshmen to the team this season - Sydney Campbell, Alice Cope, Hanna Drake, Taylor Nieman, Deveney Pula, Ana Vanjak, Lucy Zheng. Among the seven, five are taller than 5'10", with three of those five standing 6'2" or taller. The rookie class also draws heavily on key volleyball-playing states, as four of the players hail from California, with another two from Texas. The seventh, Vanjak, is originally from Croatia but has lived in Germany for the past few years.

RECAPPING 2008: The Big Red volleyball team closed out its 2008 season tied for third place in the Ivy League with a 9-5 record and was 10-15 overall for the season. Megan Mushovic, Emily Borman and Hilary Holland each earned All-Ivy honors following the season. Mushovic was named first-team for the second-straight season at libero after leading the league in digs. Borman received second-team honors at middle blocker, and Holland was an honorable mention selection at the setter position.

UP NEXT: Cornell is back in action next weekend, as it travels to Dartmouth on Friday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m., and Harvard on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 4 p.m.