MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #15: Cornell vs. Princeton
MATCH TIME: Friday, Oct. 13, 2017; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 53-19
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 3-2; Nov. 11, 2016 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2017 RECORDS: Cornell (6-8, 2-3 Ivy); Princeton (12-3, 5-0 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball
LIVE VIDEO: www.IvyLeague.TV   
 
MATCH #16: Cornell vs. Penn
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 43-27
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-2; Nov. 12, 2016 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
* 2017 RECORDS: Cornell (6-8, 2-3 Ivy); Penn (7-7, 2-3 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/wvball
LIVE VIDEO: www.IvyLeague.TV 
 
* records prior to Friday evening's contests.  
 
THE MATCHUP: The Cornell volleyball team will return home after a four-match road trip and will look to make some noise in the Ivy League as it hosts Princeton, the only team to still boast a perfect Ivy League record, as well as Penn, which sits tied with the Big Red for fourth place in the conference standings. Cornell will welcome the Tigers to Newman Arena on Friday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., and the Quakers on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 5 p.m. The Big Red will also hold its annual Middle School & High School Night on Saturday. In addition to in-match promotions Cornell team members will meet fans and sign posters following the contest.

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 53-19 record against Cornell. The teams split the series in 2013, but the Tigers have won six straight.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Two-time defending Ivy League champion Princeton sits atop the conference standings with a record of 9-3 overall (5-0 Ivy).  The Tigers rank in the top half of the conference in kills (first), assists (first), hitting percentage (second), digs (second), and opponent hitting percentage (third). The offense is run by sophomore setter Jessie Harris, who ranks first in the Ivy League with 10.96 assists per game. Harris is bolstered by Natasha Skov (3.51) and Maggie O'Connell (3.37), who occupy the top two spots in the conference standings for kills per set, and Nnenna Ibe, who leads the Ivy League with a  .416 hitting percentage. Defensively, Ibe is a force at the net, ranking fifth in the conference with 1.09 blocks per set, while libero Maddie Huber sits behind only Cornell's Kiley McPeek with 4.27 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 43-27 all-time lead, but since 2000 the series has been much more equal with Penn owning a slim 16-13 advantage. Cornell won both matches last year for the first season sweep since 2006.
 
SCOUTING THE QUAKERS: Penn enters Friday's game at Columbia with a record of 7-7 overall (2-3 Ivy League). The Quakers are led by freshman Parker Jones 3.09 kills per set, while senior Kendall Covington owns a .358 hitting percentage, marks that are good for fifth and fourth, respectively, in the Ivy League rankings. Sophomore setter Sydney Morton averages 9.42 assists per game, while sophomore Caroline Furrer leads the team with 3.26 digs per set.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg is in her third season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (24-38, .387) ... 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.
 
CLOSE CALLS & FREE VOLLEYBALL: In Cornell's five Ivy League matches this season, the Big Red has played 20 sets, nine of which have been decided by just two points (.450) with eight of the nine going to extra points.  
 
ACES: Jenna Phelps came one ace shy of breaking the school record for aces in a match (8) when she registered seven vs. Brown on Oct. 6.
* Phelps enters the week leading the Ivy League and ranking sixth in the nation with 0.56 aces per set.
 
GRINDING OUT A WIN: The Big Red is 5-4 in matches that go more than three sets. Cornell is just 1-3 in three-set matches.
 
MOVING UP: The following Big Red are moving up the Cornell rankings …
Emily Wemhoff
* 10th – Kills (754)
* 15th – Points (824.5)
Kit McCarty
* 14th – Kills (689)
Chelsea Sincox
* 17th – Assists (382)
Lauren Donnelly
* 18th – Assists (277)
Kiley McPeek
* 17th – Digs (792)
Zoe Chamness
* 20th - Assists (180)
 
NCAA TEAM RANKINGS: As a team, Cornell entered the week ranked …
* 2nd – Attacks per Set (41.08)
* 30th – Digs per Set (16.94)
* 51st – Assists per Set (12.91)
* 58th – Kills per Set (13.72)
* 85th – Blocks per Set (2.28)
 
NCAA INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS: Big Red players entered the week ranked …
* 6th – Aces per Set (Jenna Phelps – 0.56)
* 60th – Blocks per Set (Jenna Phelps – 1.23)
* 62nd – Digs per Set (Kiley McPeek – 4.64)
* 88th – Aces per Set (Kiley McPeek – 0.38)
* 106th – Attacks per Set (Emily Wemhoff – 10.19)
* 152nd – Blocks per Set (Jada Stackhouse – 1.06)
 
IVY RANKINGS: The Big Red ranks in the top half of the Ivy League in …
* Digs – 1st (16.94)
* Kills – 2nd (13.72)
* Assists – 2nd (12.91)
* Service Aces – 3rd (1.32)
* Blocks – 4th (2.28)
 
INDIVIDUAL IVY RANKINGS: Big Red players rank in the Ivy League in …
* Hitting Percentage – Jenna Phelps (7th – .308)
* Kills per Set – Emily Wemhoff (4th – 3.25); Samanta Arenas (7th – 2.76)
* Assists per Set – Zoe Chamness (8th – 5.62); Chelsea Sincox (9th – 5.06)
* Service Aces per Set – Jenna Phelps (1st – 0.56); Kiley McPeek (4th – 0.38)
* Blocks per Set – Jenna Phelps (1st – 1.23); Jada Stackhouse (7th – 1.06)
* Digs per Set – Kiley McPeek (1st – 4.64); Samanta Arenas (8th – 3.09)
* Points per Set – Emily Wemhoff (6th – 3.45); Jenna Phelps (8th – 3.20); Samanta Arenas (10th – 3.07)
 
DIGS A LOT: Kiley McPeek leads the conference with 4.64 digs per set. That mark is the highest by a Cornell player since Natasha Rowland averaged 5.67 digs during the 2014 season.
 
BIG HITTER: Emily Wemhoff currently leads the Big Red with 3.25 kills per set, the most by a Cornell player since Katie Marshall averaged 3.5 kills per set during the 2007 season.
 
THE SWITCH: Two of Cornell's biggest contributors this season – Kiley McPeek and Chelsea Sincox – are playing positions that are significantly different than when they arrived on East Hill. McPeek joined the Big Red as an outside hitter and moved into the Libero role midway through the 2016 season. Sincox has spent the past three seasons as one of the team's top defensive specialists, before becoming one of the team's primary setters in the 2017 campaign.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: After leading the Big Red to a thrilling 3-1 victory over Columbia on Sept. 23, senior Emily Wemhoff was named the Ivy League Player of the Week. The honor was the first of Wemhoff's career and the first for the Big Red this season. Wemhoff recorded a career-high 23 kills as the only Cornell player to reach double-digits.  The 23 kills are the most in the Ivy League so far this season and also rank 17th in the Cornell history for kills in a four-set match. Wemhoff finished the match with a .405 hitting percentage (23-6-42), the best single-game performance of her career, to go along with four digs, two assists and one block.
 
DID YOU KNOW?:
* 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 … During the summer of 2016, she did an internship in Istanbul, Turkey and was in the country during an 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 graduated from 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.
 
ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM:
* Through the first two tournaments of the season, Kiley McPeek picked up a pair of all-tournament selections (JMU's Tropical Smoothie Invitational; Big Red Invitational).
* Emily Wemhoff was named to the Big Red Invitational All-Tournament team. 
* Kit McCarty and Kara Rogers were named to the Colgate Invitational All-Tournament Team.
 
BIG RED INVITATIONAL: Cornell came out of the Big Red Invitational with two wins for the first time since 2007, and just missed out on earning its first tournament title since 2005, as St. John's took the crown by tiebreaker (set winning percentage). 
 
RECAPPING 2016: Coming off its best performance since 2008, Cornell finished the 2016 season with a 12-12 record overall, posting six more victories than it did the year prior, the best single-season turnaround since the 2003 team went 21-4 following a 14-12 performance in 2002. With its record of 6-8 in the Ivy League, the Big Red finished fifth in the conference standings for its highest finish since the 2008 team placed third.
 
UP NEXT: The second half of Ivy League play begins in New York City vs. Columbia on Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. The Big Red won the first meeting this season, 3-1, at Newman Arena.