Cornell volleyball clinched its third consecutive Ivy League Tournament berth and moved into sole possession of first place Saturday with a four-set win over Penn at Newman Arena.
The Big Red won 25-16, 25-18, 25-27, 25-19 to improve to 13-6 overall and 9-1 in conference play. Yale fell to 8-2 in the league after a five-set loss to Harvard, according to Cornell's recap.
"I think we had moments of playing our kind of volleyball," coach Trudy Vande Berg said. "It wasn't a pretty match, but I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss every day."
Sione matches her career high
Jaida Sione led Cornell with 15 kills, her season best and a match for her career high from 2024. Ava Bogan had 11 kills on .400 hitting, with one error in 25 attempts.
Bogan also had 11 blocks — two solo and nine assisted — according to the official box score. Cornell finished with 18.5 team blocks to Penn's 4.5.
Mackenzie Parsons contributed seven kills and eight blocks, while Sydney Zanca had eight kills and seven blocks. Nevaeh Tien supplied 34 assists, 12 digs and two aces.
Sara Pomar and Kiran Rio each had 12 digs, and Haley Clark added 10. Cornell hit .218 with 46 kills and 15 errors, while Penn hit .034 with 41 kills and 35 errors.
Cornell wins the opening two sets
Cornell scored the first five points of the match and never trailed in the opening set. The Big Red hit .256 with 12 kills, held Penn to minus .021 hitting and recorded six blocks. Bogan was involved in five blocks, and Sione had four kills. A 4-0 run extended the lead to 21-13 before Cornell closed out a 25-16 win.
Penn took a 2-0 lead in the second set, but Cornell responded with five consecutive points and never trailed again. Sione had four more kills, and Parsons, Clark and Pomar served aces.
Penn served five aces in the set and pulled within 19-18. Cornell then won six straight points, with CJ Holdsworth serving the final five, to take the set 25-18. The Big Red hit .280 and held Penn to minus .073.
Fourth-set adjustment closes the match
The third set featured 11 ties and seven lead changes. Cornell scored five straight points with Pomar serving to turn a 17-15 deficit into a 20-17 lead, then reached set point at 24-23. Penn recovered to win 27-25.
Cornell hit .021 in the set, with 10 kills and nine errors. Sione had four kills, Bogan added three and Parsons was involved in three blocks.
"They dig a ton of balls, and we know that," Vande Berg said. "We're a team that just wants to overpower people, so we got frustrated, especially in that third set, not being able to put the ball down. We just kept hitting the same ball over and over again, and they just kept digging it."
The Big Red varied their shots and attack angles in the fourth set, hitting .433 with 15 kills and two errors. Cornell never trailed after a 1-1 tie. Zanca and Bogan each had four kills, while Parsons added three kills and two blocks.
Cornell built a 20-12 lead before Penn won six of the next seven points to close within 21-18. The Big Red took four of the last five points. Zanca had a kill for a 23-19 lead, then teamed with Bogan on a block for match point before a Penn attack error ended the match.
"In the fourth set, you could see we started to change things up," Vande Berg said. "I was really excited to see that adjustment."
Penn fell to 11-9 overall and 3-7 in Ivy play. Cornell hosts second-place Yale at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, and Brown at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7. Both matches at Newman Arena will stream on ESPN+.
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