MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #13: Cornell vs. Penn
MATCH TIME: Friday, Oct. 7, 2016; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 43-25
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 3-2; Nov. 14, 2015
2016 RECORDS: Cornell (5-7, 0-3 Ivy); Penn (7-8, 2-1 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball/
LIVE VIDEO:  http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell
  
MATCH #14: Cornell vs. Princeton
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 51-19
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 3-0; Nov. 13, 2015
* 2016 RECORDS: Cornell (5-7, 0-3 Ivy); Princeton (9-3, 3-0 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball/
LIVE VIDEO:  http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell
 
* records prior to Friday's contests

THE MATCHUP: The Big Red volleyball team returns to action at Newman Arena as it wraps up a four-game home stand against Penn and Princeton. Cornell will face the Quakers on Friday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m., before taking on the Ivy League leading Tigers on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 5 p.m. The game vs. Penn will also serve as the team's annual Middle School night with special promotions and a post-game autograph session. Live stats will be available for both contests at http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball/ and both matches can be seen live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
THE SERIES VS. PENN: 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 43-25 all-time lead, but since 2000 the series has been much more equal with Penn owning a slim 16-11 advantage. Cornell snapped a three-game losing streak to the Quakers with a 3-0 victory in 2014, but Penn went on to win both games a season ago.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE QUAKERS: The Big Red saw its Senior Night celebration to honor Brittany Kalepa spoiled by Penn, as the Quakers escaped Newman Arena with a 3-2 decision. Cornell won the first and third sets (25-17 and 25-18) but the visitors took the second (25-15), fourth (25-19), and fifth (15-9) to conclude the 2015 campaign for both programs. The Big Red was led by Carla Sganderlla, who posted a career-high 24 kills and 16 digs. The 24 kills ranks 26th all-time in Big Red history for kills in a match and is the most by a Cornell player since Elizabeth Bishop registered 27 vs. Penn on Nov 10, 2006. Maddy Sroufe also finished with 14 kills, while Kit McCarty and Kara Rogers chipped in eight kills apiece. Setters Alyssa Phelps and Lauren Donnelly tallied 29 and 23 assists, respectively. The duo each posted a double-double with Phelps adding 14 digs, while Donnelly had 12 digs. Libero Chelsea Sincox also had an outstanding night, posting a career- and match-high 28 digs. Kalepa, a senior defensive specialist, started the match and played in all five sets, finishing with six digs and one service ace. She also received 27 serves on the evening without a single error. Penn posted 15 fewer kills than the Big Red (65-50) but were more efficient, hitting .207 on the evening to Cornell's .164 hitting percentage. The Quakers had two players reach double digits with Alex Caldwell (11) and Jasmine DeSilva (10) combining to go 21-4-52 (.327). Setter Ronnie Bither had a solid evening with 31 assists, 17 digs and five kills, while libero Michell Pereira posted 23 digs. In all, four Quakers finished with double-digit digs with Alexis Genske (13) and Courtney Quinn (12) making the mark.
 
SCOUTING PENN: After losing its Ivy League opener to Princeton, the Quakers won both outings last weekend against Dartmouth and Harvard to improve to 7-8 overall and 2-1 in conference play. As a team, Penn leads the Ancient Eight in digs (15.96), while Michelle Pereira ranks third in the standings with 4.39 digs per set. Offensively, Kendall Covington leads the Quakers with a .285 hitting percentage, while Grace Furrer and Courtney Quinn are averaging a team-best 2.78 and 2.66 kills per set, respectively. Junior setter Sydney Morton ranks sixth in the Ivy League with 7.73 assists per game.
 
THE SERIES VS. PRINCETON: As is true for the series against Penn, 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 51-19 record against Cornell. The teams split the series in 2013, but the Tigers have won four straight.
 
LAST TIME VS. THE TIGERS: The Big Red fell to Princeton in straight sets (17-25, 15-25, 14-25) in Newman Arena on Nov. 13, 2016. Cornell was led by Carla Sganderlla and Maddy Sroufe with eight and seven kills apiece. Setter Alyssa Phelps finished with 12 assists and a team-high 11 digs. Libero Natalie Danenhauer also finished with seven digs. Princeton hit .303 as a team thanks in large part to Brittany Ptak who posted 10 kills and no errors on 21 attempts for a .476 hitting percentage. Ptak was one of three Tigers to reach double-digit kills, a Kendall Peterkin and Cara Mattaliano finished with 12 apiece. Mattaliano posted a double-double with a match-high 14 digs, while setter Claire Nussbaum finished with 39 assists and 10 digs.
 
SCOUTING PRINCETON: The Tigers have won seven consecutive matches to get off to a 9-3 start and lead the Ivy League with a 3-0 record.  The team sits near to the top of the Ivy League in every statistical category, leading the conference in hitting percentage, assists, and kills, while ranking second overall in digs and service aces. Princeton has three players – Maggie O'Connell (.398), Nnenna Iba (.380), and Brittany Ptak (.373) – ranking among the top four in the Ivy League in hitting percentage, with Cara Mattaliano (3.49) and Ptak (3.24) rank first and second, respectively, in the conference for kills per set. Sophomore Claire Nussbaum (second – 9.97) and freshman Jessica Harris (third – 8.29) split the setting duties and rank among the top three of the Ivy League, while Kelly Matthews (eighth – 3.26) and Mattaliano (ninth – 3.23) both rank in the top 10 of the conference for digs per set.  
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg is in her second season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (11-25, .305) ... 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.
 
HEAVY HITTERS: The Big Red enters the weekend with a .240 hitting percentage, a mark that would be the fourth best in school history if the season ended today.
 
CLOSE LOSSES: Cornell has lost nine sets in Ivy League play, nearly half of which (four) have been by two points.
 
NCAA RANKINGS: Entering the week, Carla Sganderlla's .53 service aces per set ranks eighth in the nation, while Macey Wilson ranks 79th with a .357 hitting percentage.
 
IN THE IVY RANKINGS: Several Cornell players are raked in the top 10 of various Ivy League statistical categories, including:
* Macey Wilson – fifth in hitting percentage (.357)
* Kit McCarty – seventh in hitting percentage (.320)
* Jenna Phelps – eighth in hitting percentage (.317)
* Carla Sganderlla – fifth in kills per set (2.94)
* Kit McCarty – sixth in kills per set (2.89)
* Maddy Sroufe – ninth in kills per set (2.67)
* Alyssa Phelps – fifth in assists per set (7.83)
* Carla Sganderlla – first in service aces per set (0.53)
* Lily Barber – seventh in digs per set (3.35)
 
TEAM IVY RANKINGS: As a team, Cornell ranks in the top three of the Ivy League rankings in:
* Blocks (second – 2.17) 
* Assists (second – 12.54)
* Kills (second – 13.28)
* Hitting percentage (second – .240)
 
SETTING UP: Senior Alyssa Phelps is just the fourth player in Big Red history to surpass 2,500 assists in a career, sitting fourth overall with 2,704 helpers. She needs just 92 more to surpass Whitney Fair '06 in third place.
 
BIG BLOCKER: Senior Macey Wilson ranks 15th in Cornell history for career solo blocks (44), needing just three more to move past Traci Mizoguchi '96 in 14th place. She is also fourth in block assists (266) and seventh in total blocks (310), needing 27 and 21, respectively, to move up a notch.
 
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS: With its 2-1 showing at the Bucknell Invitational, Cornell improved to 5-4 on the year, amassing the most non-conference wins in a season since 2006 (7) ... With one non-conference games to play, the Big Red has also guaranteed its first .500 non-conference record since that 2006 squad went 7-7.  

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:  Juniors Kit McCarty and Emily Wemnoff were named to the Cornell Invitational All-Tournament … Junior Maddy Sroufe was named to the UMKC Kangaroo Klassic All-Tournament Team … McCarty and sophomore Carla Sganderlla were name to the Bucknell Invitational All-Tournament Tea.  
 
DID YOU KNOW:
* Alyssa Phelps is a research assistant in the Ophir Integrative Neuroethology Lab at Cornell … Alyssa and Jenna Phelps are sisters.
* 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 … This past summer, she did an internship in Istanbul, Turkey and was in the country during the attempted coup d'état.
* 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 ... Her brother attends Cornell.
* Kara Rogers lived in Germany for a year … Her sister is a member of the Yale swimming team.
* Maddy Sroufe's younger sister plays volleyball at VCU.
* This past summer, Chelsea Sincox worked for congressman Pete Olson … Last summer she interned at NASA.
 
SEASON OPENERS: With its win over Colgate on Sept. 3, Cornell improved to 29-14-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 16-5 in the first match of the season ... Coach Vande Berg is a perfect 2-0 in season openers.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Big Red added six freshmen – as Samanta Arenas, Lily Barber, Sophia Beaudoin, Jenna Phelps, Katie Randolph and Jada Stackhouse – to the roster for the 2016 season. The six student-athletes hail from six different states and the group consists of two middle blockers, two outside hitters, one setter, and one defensive specialist.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red wraps up non-conference play this week when it travels to Binghamton on Tuesday, Oct. 11 to take on the Bearcats at 7 p.m.