MATCH INFO
MATCH #23: Cornell vs. Princeton
MATCH TIME: Friday, Nov. 13, 2015; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 50-19
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 3-0, on Oct. 10, 2015
2015 RECORDS: Cornell (6-16, 2-10 Ivy); Princeton (13-8, 8-4 Ivy)
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MATCH #24: Cornell vs. Penn
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 42-25
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 3-1, on Oct. 9, 2015
* 2015 RECORDS: Cornell (6-14, 2-8 Ivy); Penn (11-13, 5-7Ivy)
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* records prior to Friday night's contents
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red will play its final home games of the season, and honor senior Brittany Kalepa, when it plays host to Princeton and Penn on Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Nov. 14, respectively. The Game with the Tigers will begin at 7 p.m., while the game with the Quakers is slated to begin at 5 p.m. Cornell's Senior Day celebration will take place following the game vs. Penn.
 
THE SERIES VS. PRINCETON: The Cornell series with Princeton began in the 1974 season, a 2-0 Big Red victory. The Tigers have dominated the series since, owning a 50-19 record against Cornell. The teams split the series in 2013, but the Tigers have won three straight.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE TIGERS: Despite some solid individual efforts by a number of underclassmen, the Big Red was swept by Princeton, 3-0 (19-25, 20-25, 15-25), in Dillon Gym on Oct. 10. Freshman Alex Basler continued to impress during Ivy League play, leading the Big Red with eight kills. She finished the night hitting .316 (8-2-19), while sophomore Maddy Sroufe hit a team-best .455 with six kills (6-1-11).  Freshman Carla Sganderlla also finished with seven kills. Freshman libero Natalie Danenhauer wrapped up an impressive weekend with a match-high 14 digs and three service aces. Junior setter Alyssa Phelps handed out 24 assists. Princeton had a pair of hitters reach double-digits, including Cara Mattaliano's 10-kill, 12-dig double-double. Setters Claire Nussbaum and Lauren Miller had 24 and 14 assists, respectively. Nussbaum also had a match-high four service aces. The Tigers hit an impressive .312 as a team, as every Princeton player finished with a positive hitting percentage, while Cornell posted a .156 hitting percentage. 
 
SCOUTING PRINCETON: After opening Ivy League play with three consecutive losses, the Tigers have rebounded in a big way, winning 8-of-9 and vaulting into second place in the Ivy League standings with a record of 13-8 overall and 8-4 in the conference. Kendall Peterkin leads Princeton with 3.54 kills per set, while Cara Mattaliano (3.27) and Brittany Ptak (2.34) both average more than two kills per set. Setters Claire Nussbaum and Lauren Miller are averaging 6.73 and 6.00 assists per set, respectively, and libero Sarah Daschbach is averaging 4.48 digs per set.
  
THE SERIES VS. PENN: As is true for the series against Princeton, the Big Red and Penn first met in 1974, a 2-0 Big Red victory. The Quakers went on to dominate the series for the rest of the 1970s and '80s, accounting for its 42-25 all-time lead, but since 2000 the series has been much more equal with Penn owning a slim 15-11 advantage. Cornell snapped a three-game losing streak to the Quakers with a 3-0 victory last season, but lost the first meeting this year.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE QUAKERS: Sophomore Kit McCarty registered a career-high 16 kills, but it wasn't enough as the Big Red lost a hard-fought 3-1 decision to Penn at the Palestra on Oct. 9. The match was tightly contested throughout, with Cornell pushing the Quakers to extra points in two of three sets, with the home team winning the first set, 26-24, and the last, 28-26. The Big Red won the second set of the match, 25-20, while Penn won the third set, 25-19. McCarty was the only Big Red player in double-digits with both Macey Wilson and Carla Sganderlla finishing with nine kills apiece. Setter Alyssa Phelps posted 33 assists and used some well-timed attacks to finish with four kills and no errors on 10 attempts. She also posted 12 digs as one of two Cornell players to reach double-figures, joining Chelsea Sincox who tallied a team-high 17 digs. Freshmen Shae Bauchens and Natalie Danenhauer also finished with eight digs apiece, with Danenhauer also racked up five service aces. Penn was led by Alexis Genske's 16-kill, 12-dig performance. Alex Caldwell also finished with 10 kills and just one error on 23 attempts for a solid .391 hitting percentage, helping the Quakers to finish at .221 as a team. Four Penn players finished with double-digit digs, include Michelle Pereira with a match-high 20, while Ronnie Bither handed out 38 assists and tallied 17 digs.
 
SCOUTING PENN: After winning its first two Ivy League games vs. Princeton and Dartmouth, the Quakers dropped 6-of-7 and enters the weekend with a record of 11-13 overall and 5-7 in conference play.  Setter Ronnie Bither leads the conference with 9.28 assists per set. Hitters Alexis Genske (3.09), Alex Caldwell (2.19), and Michellie McDonald-O'Brien (2.01) are all averaging more than two kills per game. Libero Michelle Pereira ranks fourth in the conference with 4.23 digs per set.  
 
SENIOR DAY SALUTE: This weekend will be the final collegiate games for Cornell senior Brittany Kalepa. A defensive specialist from Honolulu, Hawaii, she enters the weekend averaging 2.35 digs per set for her career. Kalepa has played in 86 sets over 34 career matches and has posted double-digit digs eight times, including a career-high 28 digs vs. Dartmouth on Oct. 13, 2012.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg is in her first season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (6-16, .272) ... Vande Berg became the 11th head coach in Cornell volleyball history in March 2015 after spending three seasons as the Big Red's top assistant coach ... Prior to her time at Cornell, Vande Berg spent time as an assistant coach at North Florida, Duke, and Iowa State and as a volunteer assistant at Wisconsin. She also served as head coach of the Team Iowa Ice professional club in the Premier Volleyball League, where she guided the team to the championship in her second year at the helm. Ice is the only team to have medaled in each of the three years of the league's existence.
 
SECOND HALF SURGE: After going 0-7 in the first half of Ivy League play, the Big Red has gone 2-3 and has an opportunity to finish the second half with a winning record with a pair of wins this weekend.
 
NCAA RANKINGS: Entering the week, Natalie Danenhauer ranks 24th in the nation in aces per game (0.43). As a team, Cornell's 1.47 aces per set ranks 56th in the nation and first in the Ivy League.
 
IN THE RANKINGS: Several Cornell players are raked in the top 10 of various Ivy League statistical categories, including:
* Alyssa Phelps – fifth in assists per set (7.18)
* Natalie Danenhauer – first in service aces per set (0.43)
* Alex Basler – fourth in service aces per set (0.28)
* Chelsea Sincox – sixth in digs per set (3.96)
 
IVY ONLY: The player performances have been even better against Ivy League only competition …
* Alex Basler – ninth in hitting percentage (.262)
* Carla Sganderlla – ninth in kills per game (2.80)
* Alyssa Phelps – sixth in assists per set (7.85)
* Natalie Danenhauer – first in service aces per set (0.50)
* Alex Basler – seventh in service aces per set (0.27)
* Chelsea Sincox – sixth in digs per set (4.02)
* Natalie Danenhauer – 10th in digs per set (3.47)
  
CLOSE CALLS:  Of the 35 sets the Big Red has lost this season, more than one-third (13) have been by just two points.
 
SECOND HALF SGANDERLLA: Freshman Carla Sganderlla had an outstanding  three-match stretch to open the second half of Ivy League play, posting three consecutive double-doubles. She set career highs vs. Columbia on Oct. 24 with 15 kills and 16 digs, and then improved on both of those marks in each of the next two outings with 20 kills and 18 digs vs. Yale (Oct. 30), before posting 22 kills and 18 digs vs. Brown (Oct. 31).
 
BOOMING BASLER: Since the start of Ivy League play, freshman Alex Basler has recorded just 14 hitting errors, going a collective 77-18-225 for a team-best .262 hitting percentage.
 
SETTING UP: Junior Alyssa Phelps currently sits in fifth place overall in Cornell history for career assists (2,303). She needs 162 to surpass Amy Gordan (2004-07) in fourth place with 2,465 assists.
 
BIG BLOCKER: Junior Macey Wilson ranks 16th in Cornell history for career solo blocks (36), needing just three more to move past Heather Young in 15th place. She is also eighth in block assists (224) and 11th in total blocks (260), needing 16 and four, respectively, to move up a notch.
 
DID YOU KNOW:
* Brittany Kalepa was a member of the Kamehameha Schools Children's Chorus, which sang in the movie Lilo and Stitch.
* This past summer, Houston native Chelsea Sincox served as a tour guide at Space Center Houston, gateway to NASA Johnson Space Center and Houston's only Smithsonian Affiliate museum.
* Kiley McPeek has 10 relatives that are Cornell alumni. Her father, Jeff '82, played sprint football for the Big Red, while her great uncle Richard Boerner was a member of the Cornell heavyweight varsity eight that won the IRA national championship in 1958.
* Kit McCarty is one of eight children – she has four brothers and three sisters.
* Zoe Lequeux is a French citizen.
* Carla Sganderlla can speak Portuguese.
* Kara Rogers lived in Germany for a year.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red freshmen class of Alex Basler, Shae Bauchens, Natalie Danenhauer, Lauren Donnelly, Gabby Goodall, Zoe Lequeux, Kara Rogers, and Carla Sganderlla was ranked among the top 90 in the nation, earning a high honorable mention distinction from PrepVolleyball.com.
 
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:  Junior Macey Wilson was named to the Jack Kaiser Volleyball Classic All-Tournament team, while junior Alyssa Phelps and freshman Carla Sganderlla were both named to the Black Knights Invitational All-Tournament Team. Phelps was also named to the Cornell Invitational All-Tournament team.
 
 SEASON OPENERS: With its win over William & Mary on Sept. 5, Cornell improved to 28-14-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 15-5 in the first match of the season.
 
OPENING UP 2-0: Cornell picked up wins over William & Mary and Iona on its first day of the season to get off to a 2-0 start for the first time since defeating Niagara and Bucknell in the opening round of the 2007 Cornell Invitational.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red volleyball season concludes this weekend.