Ivy Play Opens For Women's Volleyball Against Penn

Match Seven: Princeton (3-5) vs. Penn (2-8), 9/22 – 7 p.m. ET
Match Eight: Princeton (3-5) vs. Penn (2-8), 9/23 – 5 p.m. ET
Penn: ESPN+ | International Feed | Live Stats
Penn: ESPN+ | International Feed | Live Stats
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PRINCETON, N.J. – The Princeton University women's volleyball team opens Ivy League play with a pair of matches against the University of Pennsylvania, first taking on the Quakers Friday inside the Palestra before returning to Dillon Gymnasium to host them Saturday.

The Pursuit of Ivy Title No. 20
The Tigers aim to continue its tradition of success in 2023 and capture a 20th Ivy League Championship. A conference championship in 2023 would also be the Tigers' second-straight and third in the past four seasons. Princeton's 19 Ivy titles are the most by any team in the conference, with Yale's 12 coming in second.

Statistical Leaders
Freshman Kamryn Chaney leads Princeton and ranks third in the Ivy League in kills per set (3.55) while freshman Sydney Draper leads both the team and the conference in assists per set (10.23), a number that ranks No. 43 nationally. Sophomore Lucia Scalamandre leads both the Tigers and the Ivy League with a .503 hitting percentage that also ranks fifth in the nation, and averages 1.07 blocks per set which leads the team and ranks seventh in the conference. Scalamandre's 2.97 kills per set are also second on the team and fifth in the Ivy League,

Draper and sophomore Ella Bunde's seven service aces tie the team-high, and freshman Sydney Bold is averaging 3.80 digs per set to lead the team and rank fourth in the conference.

Ending Non-Conference Play On A High Note
The Tigers overcame Big Ten opponent Rutgers for the second-straight season, 3-2 (25-23, 12-25, 16-25, 25-19, 15-12), inside College Avenue Gymnasium on Sept. 15. Scalamandre led the Tigers in kills with 12 and hit .450, and Draper's 44 assists were a team-high. Princeton was led in digs by Bold who tallied a match-high 22, and senior Kathleen Bishop tied the team-high in blocks with Scalamandre as each had three. Bishop also added nine kills for the Tigers, which ranked second on the team.

Matching Up With The Quakers
Princeton has won 13-straight matches over the Quakers, the most recent being a 3-1 (25-14, 23-25, 25-20, 25-17) victory on Oct. 21, 2022, inside the Palestra. In Penn's most recent contest, it took down NJIT on Sept. 16 in Dover, Delaware, 3-1 (25-11, 22-25, 25-15, 25-14).

Award Winners
Draper has garnered a pair of awards in her short Princeton career, being named Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Sept. 4 and to the All-Tournament Team at the Bucknell Invitational on Sept. 2. Scalamandre was also an All-Tournament Team honoree at the Bucknell Invitational.

Head Coach Sabrina King
A three-time Ivy Coach of the Year (2019, 2016, 2015), King has guided Princeton to five Ivy titles (2022, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015). King has also coached four Ivy Players of the Year and spent seven seasons as an assistant coach, winning conference championships in 2007 and 2004. As a player, King won three Ivy titles, was named All-Ivy League on three occasions and was the 1999 Ivy Player of the Year.

The Returning Ivy Rookie of the Year
Scalamandre, the 2022 Ivy Rookie of the Year, will look to build off a dominant freshman campaign. Also named ECAC Rookie of the Year and First Team All-Ivy, Scalamandre was a seven-time Ivy Rookie of the Week in 2022. She led the Ivy League in total blocks (104), a number that also ranked third all-time in program history for most blocks in a season. Scalamandre ranked first in the Ivy League, 39th in the nation in blocks per set (1.27) and had 10 matches with at least five blocks. In addition, Scalamandre ranked third on the team in points (266) and points per set (3.24).

A Summer of Service
Erin McNair spent two weeks in Kenya over the summer with HEART (Health Education Africa Resource Team), a faith-based humanitarian organization that focuses on empowering vulnerable women, children, and youth in Africa to thrive beyond HIV. The WEEP mother's (Women's Equality Empowerment Program) is one of the many programs that HEART has in which they provide single, vulnerable mother with skills and resources to overcome their current situations to provide for them kids and themselves. The experience was so impactful for McNair that she has decided to take Swahili at Princeton to further pursue the culture in hopes of returning in the future.

Summer Standouts
McNair wasn't the only Tiger to have a busy summer. Kathleen Bishop worked at the German Aerospace Center, Ella Bunde studied abroad at the London School of Economics, Gracie Wood was a Clinical Science Intern at the Topcon Healthcare Innovation Center (THINC) division with Topcon Healthcare, Mariah Haislip was a Summer Fellow with J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management – U.S. Private Bank, Shelby Fulton took an online course on machine learning and did personal coding projects, Valerie Nutakor worked as a patient safety assistant at a hospital while obtaining an EMT certification and Julia Cabri was an intern with Exabeam, a cyber security company in the Bay Area.

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