Women's Volleyball

Ivies Capture Pair of Tournament Titles

PRINCETON, N.J. -- After leading their teams to winning marks in their season-opening tournaments, Yale junior Kelley Wirth and Penn freshman Parker Jones were selected as the Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively. Yale opened the 2017 campaign 3-0 to win the Yale Invitational, while Penn went 2-1 at the George Mason Invitational. 

LEAGUE NOTES
  • For the seventh time in the past decade, the Ivy League claims a .500-or-better winning percentage through 24 games. At 13-11 (.542), the Ancient Eight edges last year’s 12-12 (.500) start.
  • Brown captured the Holy Cross Invitational title, starting the year 3-0 for the first time since 2008. Freshman right-side hitter Eliza Grover was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player.
  • For the second-straight year Yale swept its home invitational and junior outside hitter Kelley Wirth was selected as the Tournament Most Valuable Player.
  • Yale has defeated a Power 5 opponent in each of the past three seasons, including its victory over Clemson (3-0) on September 2.
  • Penn (2-1) and Princeton (2-1) also boast winning records following the opening weekend of the 2017 campaign.
  • Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn host home invitationals this weekend.
  • Yale will be the first Ivy to take on a ranked team this season, when it squares off against No. 19 USC on Saturday, September 9, in the UC Santa Barbara Thunderdome Classic.  
  • Nine matches will be broadcast on the Ivy League Network, which is available on Apple TV and Roku. The network can be found at IvyLeague.TV and IvyLeagueNetwork.com.
 
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Wednesday, September 6
Seton Hall at Princeton, 7 p.m. [ILN]
 
Friday, September 8
Harvard at Wright State, 1 p.m.
Yale at UC Santa Barbara, 1 p.m. [FloVolleyball]
Princeton at Villanova, 1:30 p.m. [Nova Nation All-Access]
Columbia vs. Marist, 4 p.m.
Binghamton at Cornell, 5 p.m. [ILN]
Princeton vs. Albany, 5 p.m. [Nova Nation All-Access]
Brown vs. Stony Brook 6 p.m.
Syracuse at Dartmouth, 6 p.m. [ILN]
Harvard vs. West Virginia, 6 p.m.
Siena at Penn, 7 p.m. [ILN]
Yale vs. Arkansas, 7:30 p.m. [FloVolleyball]
 
Saturday, September 9
Brown vs. Manhattan, 10 a.m.
St. John’s at Cornell, 11 a.m. [ILN]
Columbia vs. Northeastern, 11 a.m.
Princeton vs. UConn, 11 a.m. [Nova Nation All-Access]
Iona at Dartmouth, 1 p.m. [ILN]
Harvard vs. Tennessee Tech, 1 p.m.
Navy at Penn, 4:30 p.m. [ILN] [Facebook Live]
Brown at Bryant, 5 p.m. [NEC Front Row]
Sacred Heart at Dartmouth, 6:30 p.m. [ILN]
Valparaiso at Cornell, 7 p.m. [ILN]
Columbia at Rhode Island, 7 p.m.
Yale vs. No. 19 USC, 7 p.m. [FloVolleyball]
 
Sunday, September 10
Penn at La Salle, 1 p.m.
 
KEY
ILN – Broadcast on the Ivy League Network, now available on Apple TV and Roku
FloVolleyball – Broadcast on FloVolleyball, a FloSports Channel
Nova Nation All-Access – Broadcast on Villanova's Nova Nation All-Access
Facebook Live – Broadcast on Facebook Live
NEC Front Row – Broadcast on the Northeast Conference's NEC Front Row

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
History repeats itself. Yale sweeps its home invitational to open the season 3-0, while Kelley Wirth is named the Tournament Most Valuable Player and Ivy League Player of the Week. This course of events opened the 2016 Bulldog campaign and recurred to begin the 2017 season.
 
Wirth, a junior outside hitter, hit .389, with a team-high 34 kills and 36.5 points to lead Yale to victories over Delaware (3-0), Rhode Island (3-1) and Clemson (3-0). The Moraga, Calif., native was one of three Bulldogs to be named to the Yale Invitational All-Tournament Team, joining sophomore setter Franny Arnautou and freshman outside hitter Kathryn Attar. Wirth added four digs and five total blocks across the 10 sets in invitational play.
 
Wirth adds a fourth Ivy League weekly honor to her list of conference accolades, last being named the Player of the Week on Sept. 5, 2016. She was a Second Team All-Ivy performer as a freshman and an All-Ivy Honorable Mention as a sophomore.
 
Wirth’s Statistics for the Week  
3 MP, 10 Sets, 34 K, .389 Hitting %, 4 Digs, 5 TB, 36.5 Pts.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Penn freshman outside hitter Parker Jones led the Quakers in kills in each of their three matches at the George Mason Invitational, helping Penn start the year 2-1.
 
The Lafayette, Calif., native hit .257, while tallying 44 kills and 49.0 points. The Quakers fell to Campbell (3-2), before handing Central Michigan its first loss of the season and lone loss of the Invitational (3-1) on Sept. 1. Penn claimed a winning mark by downing host George Mason (3-0) on Sept. 2. 
 
Jones receives the first Ivy League weekly award of her career and is the first Quaker Rookie of the Week honoree since Caroline Furrer on Sept. 12, 2016.
 
Jones’s Statistics for the Week 
3 MP, 12 Sets, 44 K, .257 Hitting %, 1 A, 2 SA, 27 Digs, 6 TB, 49.0 Pts.
 
HONOR ROLL
Gabrielle Moriconi, Brown (Fr., OH – Naples, Fla.)
3 MP, 10 Sets, 33 K, .301 Hitting %, 23 Digs, 4 TB, 35.0 Pts.

Tori Dozier, Dartmouth (So., S – Raleigh, N.C.)
3 MP, 11 Sets, 8 K, .240 Hitting %, 67 A, 25 Digs, 11 TB, 14.0 Pts. 

Abby Kott, Dartmouth (So., MB – Cary, N.C.)
3 MP, 11 Sets, 15 K, .231 Hitting %, 6 TB, 18.5 Pts. 
 
Christina Cornelius, Harvard (Jr., MB – Los Angeles, Calif.)
3 MP, 13 Sets, 27 K, .313 Hitting %, 1 SA, 6 Digs, 13 TB, 35.5 Pts.
 
Sydney Vach, Harvard (Fr., L – Winter Springs, Fla.)
3 MP, 13 Sets, 4 A, 48 Digs, 0.00 Pts.
 
Jessie Harris, Princeton (So., S – Newport Beach, Calif.)
3 MP, 12 Sets, 8 K, .214 Hitting %, 110 A, 30 Digs, 9 TB, 12.5 Pts.
 
Caroline Sklaver, Princeton (Jr., MB – Miami Beach, Fla.)
3 MP, 12 Sets, 37 K, .492 Hitting %, 6 Digs, 14 TB, 45.0 Pts. 
 
Kathryn Attar, Yale (Fr., OH – Tampa, Fla.)
3 MP, 10 Sets, 22 K, .213 Hitting %, 1 A, 3 SA, 29 Digs, 8 TB, 30.0 Pts.