MATCH INFORMATION
MATCH #21: Cornell vs. Penn
MATCH TIME: Friday, Nov. 2, 2018; 7:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Penn leads, 45-28
LAST MEETING: Penn won, 3-1; Oct. 13, 2018 (Philadelphia, Pa.)
2018 RECORDS: Cornell (12-8, 7-3 Ivy); Penn (5-16, 2-8 Ivy)
LIVE STATS: https://bit.ly/2oktSJZ
LIVE VIDEO: https://es.pn/2JsT3nn
 
MATCH #22: Cornell vs. Princeton
MATCH TIME: Saturday, Nov. 2, 2018; 5:00 p.m.
MATCH SITE: Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads, 55-20
LAST MEETING: Princeton won, 3-0; Oct. 12, 2018 (Princeton, N.J.)
* 2018 RECORDS: Cornell (12-8, 7-3 Ivy); Princeton (15-6, 8-2 Ivy)
LIVE STATS:  https://bit.ly/2oktSJZ
LIVE VIDEO: https://es.pn/2yJfy3r
 
* records prior to Friday's contest
 
THE WEEKEND: Sitting in third place in the Ivy League standings, the Big Red volleyball team returns home for the final time this season to take on Penn (5-16, 2-8 Ivy) and Princeton (15-6, 8-2 Ivy), who sits in second place in the conference standings behind Yale. Friday night's 7 p.m. contest vs. the Quakers will serve as the team's Mental Health Awareness Match promoting the #Don'tBearItAlone campaign. The following night, Cornell will honor its seniors – Shae Bauchens, Natalie Danenhauer, Lauren Donnelly, Zoe Lequeux, Kara Rogers, Carla Sganderlla – before taking on the Tigers at 5 p.m. Live stats will be available at https://bit.ly/2oktSJZ and both matches can be viewed on ESPN+ at: https://es.pn/2IirH2V.
 
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MATCH: Cornell is hosting its first-ever "Green Game" against Penn on Friday night to support SAAC's #DontBearItAlone campaign for student-athlete mental health awareness. Fans are encouraged to wear green and come out early to interact with emotional support dogs and participate in mental wellness activities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyLWSGVuqnY
 
SENIOR DAY SALUTE: Saturday's game will be the final home contest for Cornell seniors Shae Bauchens, Natalie Danenhauer, Lauren Donnelly, Zoe Lequeux, Kara Rogers, Carla Sganderlla. As a class, they have been instrumental in restoring Cornell volleyball to the upper-echelon of the Ivy League. As sophomores, they led the program to one of the best single-season turnarounds in program history;  as juniors, they led the Big Red to its highest Ivy League finish since 2008; and this season they have Cornell on pace for the most Ivy League wins since the 2006 campaign.
 
THE SERIES VS. PENN: The Big Red and Penn first met in volleyball in 1974, a 2-0 Big Red victory.
* The Quakers dominated the series through the 1970s and '80s, accounting for its 45-28 all-time lead.
* Since 2000 the series has been more even with Penn owning a slim 18-14 advantage.
* Cornell had won three in a row before dropping the last meetings to the Quakers.
 
SCOUTING THE QUAKERS: Penn has lost three in a row to slip to 5-16 overall and 2-8 in the Ivy League.
* Raven Sulaimon leads the team and ranks seventh in the Ivy League with 2.93 kills per set.
* Taylor Cooper has a team-best .273 hitting percentage.
* Defensively, Caroline Furrer ranks sixth in the Ancient Eight with 3.83 digs per set.
* Setter Grace James ranks third overall in the conference standings with 9.20 assists per set
 
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 the start owning a 55-20 record.
* The Big Red split with Princeton last season, earning its first victory in the series since 2013 and snapping Princeton's seven-match streak against the Big Red.
* Princeton won the first meeting of the 2018 season, 3-0.
 
SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Princeton fell to Ivy League leading Yale last weekend to slip into second place in the conference standings with an Ivy record of 8-2 and a mark of 15-6 overall.
* Princeton has three players ranked in the top 10 in the Ivy League in hitting percentage per set – Clare Lenihan (first – .391), Maggie O'Connell (second – .349) and Caroline Sklaver (sixth – .306).
* O'Connell (fourth – 3.34) and Devon Peterkin (sixth – 3.04) are also in the top 10 in kills per set.
* Setter Jessie Harris leads the Ivy League with 11.76 assists per set.
* Defensively, Cameron Dames ranks third in the Ancient Eight with 4.09 digs per set, while Alexa Underwood (3.20) and Peterkin (2.92) are ninth and 10th, respectively.
* Peterkin is also third in service aces per set (0.33).
 
THE HEAD COACH: Trudy Vande Berg, the 2017 Ivy League Coach of the Year, is in her fourth season as The Wendy Schaenen '79 Head Coach Of Volleyball at Cornell (42-49, .462) ... 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.
 
SEASON SWEEPS: Cornell has swept three Ivy League teams so far this season – Columbia, Dartmouth and Harvard.
* It was the first season sweep against the Lions since the 2013 campaign. 
* It was the first season sweep against the Big Green since the 2012 campaign. 
* It was the first season sweep against the Crimson since the 2011 campaign. 
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jada Stackhouse was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 22 after helping the Big Red earn its first season sweep of Columbia since the 2013 season.
* Samanta Arenas was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 29 after helping Cornell post season sweeps over Dartmouth and Harvard for the first time since 2012 and 2011, respectively. .
* It was the first Ivy accolade for both players.
 
MOVING UP: The following Big Red are moving up the Cornell rankings …
* Jenna Phelps – Ninth in Block Assists (216); 13th in Total Blocks (240); 24th in Block Solos (24); 23rd in Service Aces (77); 29th in Points (647.0)
* Carla Sganderlla – 15th in Kills (695); 20th in Points (786.0)
* Jada Stackhouse – 22nd in Block Assists (156); 23rd in Total Blocks (182); 21st in Block Solos (26)
* Kara Rogers – 29th in Block Assists (118)
* Zoe Chamness – 16th in Assists (968)
* Katie Randolph – 19th in Assists (338)
* Lauren Donnelly – 20th in Assists (277)
* Lily Barber – 21st in Digs (719); 21st in Assists (208)
* Natalie Danenhauer – 30th in Service Aces (66)
 
NCAA TEAM RANKINGS: As a team, Cornell entered the week ranked among the top 100 in the NCAA …
* Opponent Hitting Percentage – 19th (.158)
 
NCAA INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS: The following Big Red players entered the week ranked …
* Jenna Phelps – 106th – Hitting Percentage (.334)
* Jada Stackhouse – 101st – Blocks per Set (1.12)
* Lily Barber – 125th – Digs per Set (4.41)
* Carla Sganderlla – 149th – Kills per Set (3.39)
* Lily Barber – 175th – Total Digs (353)
* Jada Stackhouse – 181st – Total Blocks (85)
* Jenna Phelps – 219th – Blocks per Set (0.99)
 
IVY RANKINGS: Cornell is ranked in the top half of the Ivy League rankings in …
* Hitting Percentage (fourth – .202)
* Assists per set (third – 12.16)
* Kills per set (third – 12.94)
* Blocks per set (fourth – 2.16)
* Digs per set (third – 15.53)
* Opponent Hitting Percentage (first – .158)
 
INDIVIDUAL IVY RANKINGS: Cornell has players ranked in …
* Hitting Percentage – Jenna Phelps (fourth – .334); Jada Stackhouse (eighth – .282)
* Kills per set – Carla Sganderlla (third – 3.39)
* Assists per set – Zoe Chamness (seventh – 7.16)
* Blocks per set – Jada Stackhouse (fourth – 1.12); Jenna Phelps (eighth – 0.99)
* Digs per set – Lily Barber (second – 4.41)
* Points per set – Carla Sganderlla (fifth – 3.62)
 
STRONG START: Cornell opened the season with four consecutive Ivy League victories for the first time since the 2005 season when the team opened Ivy play with 12 consecutive wins.
 
STREAKING: The Big Red posted a five-match winning streak earlier this season beginning with a win over Western Illinois on Sept. 15 and ending with a win vs. Brown on Oct. 5.
* The streak was the longest since the 2006 squad won nine consecutive to close out the regular season. 
 
PRESEASON POLL:  Cornell was picked to finish fourth overall with 79 points in the 2018 Ivy League Volleyball Preseason Media Poll.
* The Big Red came in behind third-place Harvard (97 points). Cornell and the Crimson tied for third in the conference standings in 2017, the highest finish for Cornell since 2006.
* Princeton (135 points) was picked to win its fourth-straight Ivy League title, edging second-place Yale by just 15 points.
* Rounding out the poll were Penn with 68 points, Columbia with 49 points, Dartmouth with 48 points and Brown with 20 points.
 
SEASON OPENERS: Cornell is 28-16-1 all-time in season openers. Since 1995, the Big Red is an impressive 15-7 after defeating Buffalo in the first match of the 2018 season.
 
THE CORNELL INVITATIONAL: For the second year in a row, the Big Red finished second to St. John's in the Cornell Invitational. Both years, the two teams posted identical records of 2-1, with the Red Strom winning the title by virtue of set win percentage.
 
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS:
* Lily Barber was named to both the Cornell Invitational and the Crusader Classic All-Tournament Teams.
* Carla Sganderlla was also named to the Cornell Invitational All-Tournament Team along with Barber.
* Jenna Phelps was named to the Flo Hyman Collegiate Cup All-Tournament Team.
 
TICKLE THE ALL-IVY: Trudy Vande Berg was voted the 2017 Ivy League Coach of the Year by her peers after leading the Big Red to its best season in more than a decade. In addition to Vande Berg, Kiley McPeek (first-team), Jenna Phelps (second-team), and Kit McCarty (honorable mention) were also named to the All-Ivy team.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Madison Baptiste, Kelly Behrbaum, Jillienne Bennett, Avery Hanan, Blake Hollis, and Casey Justus have joined the Big Red for the upcoming 2018 season. The six student-athletes all hail from different states, and the group consists of two pin hitters, two middle blockers, one right side hitter, and one outside hitter.
 
HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE: Ten new members, including volleyball great Joanna Weiss, have been selected for induction into the Cornell University Athletics Hall of Fame at the 41st annual ceremonies to be held Saturday, Sept. 22 on the Cornell campus. Weiss was a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and is one of just two Big Red athletes to be named to the AVCA All-Northeast Region team, earning honorable mention honors as a senior. The school's career leader in hitting percentage (.384), she ranks in the top 10 in blocks per set (second, 1.29), block assists (sixth, 262) and blocks (ninth, 297) and among the top 20 in kills, kills per set, solo blocks, points and points per set.
 
RECAPPING 2017: Vande Berg was voted the 2017 Ivy League Coach of the Year by her peers after leading the Big Red to its best season in more than a decade. Cornell finished the year with a 12-11 record overall and a mark of 8-6 in the Ivy League, tied with Harvard for third place in the conference standings. The eight Ivy League wins were the most for Cornell since the 2006 season, which was also the last time the Big Red finished in third place in the conference. The team posted a 9-1 record in Newman Arena, the most home wins in a season since 2006, and the best winning percentage since the 2005 squad was a perfect 12-0 in Ithaca. Under Vande Berg's guidance, Cornell lead the Ivy League in digs per set and ranked in the top half of the conference in opponent hitting percentage (second), assists (second), kills (second), blocks (third) and service aces (third).
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red wraps up the regular season when it heads to Ivy League leader Yale and Brown on Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 10, respectively. The game with the Bulldogs is slated for 7 p.m., while Cornell will face the Bears at 6 p.m.