ITHACA, N.Y. – With four student-athletes collecting double-digit kills, and scoring threats all over the floor for the Big Red, there was no chance of stopping the Cornell volleyball team in its 3-0 (25-14, 25-22, 25-19) sweep of Penn on Saturday evening at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
As a team, the Big Red hit an outstanding .443 on the night, not only marking the team's best hitting percentage this season, but also posting the highest team hitting percentage in a match in the Ivy League so far this year. Even more impressive, it wasn't one, two, or three, but rather four Cornell players that shouldered the load for the Big Red.
Senior middle blocker Casey Justus has been unstoppable as of late, leading the Big Red in kills for the fourth-straight match with 14 against the Quakers. She hit .550 on Saturday, and over Cornell's last three matches, has averaged a .539 hitting percentage with 39 total kills.
It wasn't even Justus who had the team's highest hitting percentage against the Quakers, as Jillienne Bennett had herself a night, racking up 13 kills on just 18 attempts for a .667 hitting percentage, both of which were season-bests. Bennett also contributed on the defensive side of the match, tallying seven digs and adding a block.
Camryn Carlo and Madison Baptiste each registered 10 kills apiece, with Carlo having a career night. The freshman's 10 kills and .562 hitting percentage were both collegiate bests, while she also notched a block. Together, the quartet of Justus, Bennett, Carlo, and Baptiste combined for 47 of the Big Red's 52 kills.
Freshman libero Jackie Baker led Cornell in the back row and at the serving line, collecting a match-high 17 digs and a team-best three aces to go along with five assists. Baker was one of three Big Red student-athletes that notched multiple serving aces in the win, as Emma Worthington and Joanna Chang each posted a pair of aces. In total, six different Cornell players secured an ace, helping the Big Red collect 10 aces as compared to Penn's four, which all came from Emerson Flornes.
The Big Red held the advantage over the Quakers in just about every statistical category, including hitting percentage (.443 - .289), kills (52-36), aces (10-4), digs (48-31), and assists (51-35). Worthington set up her teammates beautifully, notching 44 assists, more than the entire Penn team.
Freshman Sammie Engel contributed to the win for the Big Red, entering the match in the first set to make her collegiate debut.
With the victory, Cornell secured its first Ivy League victory of the season and snapped a five-match losing skid, getting back into the win column to improve to 5-8 on the season and 1-4 in conference play. Penn drops to 5-9 overall and 2-3 in the Ivy League.
The Cornell volleyball team will be back in action next weekend when it travels to Harvard on Friday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. and Dartmouth on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. for a pair of Ivy League road matches. This will be the final time the Big Red will hit the road for three weeks, as Cornell will be at home for three-straight weekends when it hosts Columbia on Oct. 23, Yale and Brown on Oct. 29-30, and Dartmouth and Harvard on Nov. 5-6 at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
