Volleyball Hosts Penn Friday; Princeton Sunday on ESPNU

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown volleyball brings a four-match winning streak into the weekend as the Bears host Penn and Princeton as Ivy play continues.

Brown will host Penn on Friday (Oct. 31) at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+. The Bears will then host Princeton on Sunday (Nov. 2) at 12 p.m. with the game being broadcast on ESPNU.

THE FIRST SERVE

• Brown broke a 10-match losing streak to Yale the last time the Bears took the court. Brown beat Yale in five sets, coming back from a 2-1 deficit in the win.
• Against the Bulldogs, Brown had the first match with four players collecting 10+ kills and four players collecting 10+ digs this season.
• The last time Brown took on Penn, the Bears pulled of their first reverse sweep under head coach Taylor Virtue. Brown has not lost to Penn in Providence since the 2017 season.
• Brown will be looking for its second-straight win over Princeton for the first time since Oct. 16 and Nov. 5 of 2021, the last season Brown won the Ivy League Championship.

LEADING THE BEARS

• Mariia Sidorova leads Brown with 3.20 kills per set, followed closely behind by Sophia Wolfson with 3.00 per set. Wolfson is hitting a team-high .378
• Julia Kakkis guides Brown’s offense with 9.44 assists per set.
• On defense, Jessie Golden is tops on the team with 4.70 digs per set. Both Sidorova (2.70) and Eve McLaury (2.00) are both at 2.00 digs per set or more.
• At the net, Wolfson is leading Brown with 1.36 blocks per set.

SCOUTING PENN

• Penn is 9-9 on the season and has a 3-5 Ivy League record. The Quakers are sitting in fifth place in the league after dropping last weekend’s match at Princeton
• Penn is currently fourth in the NCAA with 17.78 digs per set and ninth in the NCAA with 13.36 assists per set.
• Addison Pollock leads the Ivy League and is ninth in the NCAA with 5.11 digs per set.

SCOUTING PRINCETON

• Princeton is 11-5 overall and tied for Brown at second in the Ivy League with a 6-2 record. The Tigers are coming off back-to-back sweeps against Columbia and Penn before taking on Yale on Friday to start the weekend.
• The Tigers are 13th in the NCAA and leading the Ivy with a .289 hitting percentage. Lucia Scalamandre is second in the NCAA, hitting .457.
• Sydney Draper is fourth in the NCAA with 10.92 assists per set. The Tigers, as a team, are 12th in the NCAA in assists per set.

WEEKLY HONORS

• Sophia Wolfson was named Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 6 after her performances against Princeton and Penn. Guiding Brown to a 2-0 weekend. Wolfson finished the weekend with 3.25 kills per set while hitting .431. She also added seven blocks, four digs and three aces.
• Wolfson earned her second Player of the Week honor on Oct. 20. Wolfson led the Bears to a 2-0 weekend with sweeps against Harvard and Dartmouth. The sophomore finished the weekend with a team-high 4.17 kills per set, hitting .423 (25-3-52). Wolfson also added 10 blocks (1.67/set) and tied the team lead with six service aces.

HOME SWEET HOME

• After playing its first 14 games of the season on the road, Brown will finally play its first home games of the year when the Bears host Harvard and Dartmouth. The Bears are the last team in DI volleyball to have a home game.
• Brown will get cozy inside the Pizzitola Sports Center as the Bears finish with seven of their last nine games at home. A good sign as the Bears are 12-5 on their home court under head coach Taylor Virtue.

COMING UP GOLDEN

• Jessie Golden was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year for the second-straight season. The Tampa, Fla., native, as well as former Bear Victoria Vo have combined to give Brown three of the last four Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year honors.
• Golden reached 1,000-career digs last season and is moving up the all-time digs list at Brown.

            1) Tomo Nakanishi ’97   1,762
            2) Katie Lapinsky ’08      1,728
            3) Kathryn Conner ’15   1,432
            4) Elvina Kung ’04          1,397
            5) Jessie Golden ’26       1,380

• Golden comes into her senior year with a career 4.06 digs per set number. That number would be third all-time in program history. Golden has finished with a higher digs per set number than 4.06 in each of her last two seasons.
• With 21 digs against Cornell, Golden now has 25 career matches with at least 20 digs. This is the most by a Bear in a career since Melissa Cairo (2014-17) finished her career with 24.
• Golden added her 26th-career 20+ dig match with a 23-dig effort against Dartmouth. It is the most digs by Golden in a three-set match this year and the most by the senior in a three-set match since she had 24 in a win at Penn on Oct. 27, 2023.

KAKKIS TAKING CONTROL

• Sophomore Julia Kakkis took control of Brown’s offense when the freshman setter took over the spot at the beginning of Ivy League play last season. Kakkis finished the year with 8.81 assists per set and earned Honorable Mention Ivy League honors in her first year on College Hill.
• Kakkis finished the year with 16-straight matches of double-figure assists and had a season-best 53 assists against Princeton.
• This season, Kakkis reached 1,000 career assists in the win over Penn. Kakkis reached the milestone in her 33rd-career game, becoming the fastest Bear to reach 1,000 career assists since Kristen Sellers did so in her 32nd-career game in 2019.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

• Brown will be playing on ESPNU for the second-straight season as the Bears will host Princeton on national TV on Nov. 2 at 12 p.m. Last year Brown and Princeton also played on ESPNU in Providence with Princeton coming away with a five-set win.

WINNING WAYS

• Brown has now posted four-straight seasons with winning records in Ivy League play after finished 8-6 last season. Brown’s tied its longest stretch of winning league records as Brown was over .500 from 1987-90. The Bears posted a .500 record or better from 1983-90.
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• Brown’s 11 wins this season has made it seven-straight seasons of double-digit wins for Brown. The last time Brown had seven-straight double-digit win seasons came from 1996-2002.

SOAKING UP THE SUNSHINE

• Brown made its first trip to Florida since 2018, when the Bears made the trip to Stetson for a three-game tournament. During the trip to UCF, Brown pulled off a four-set win over the host Knights, giving Brown its first win over a Power 4 team in program history.

WOLFSON’S HOT START

• Brown sophomore Sophia Wolfson got off to a hot start at the Ocean State Cup, taking over as Brown’s starting middle. Wolfson finished with double-digit kills in two matches, including a career-high 14 against URI. Wolfson also hit .500 or higher in two matches, hitting .625 against Bryant. For her efforts, Wolfson was named to the Ocean State Cup All-Tournament Team.
• Things got better for Wolfson over Brown’s trip to UConn as the sophomore put on a career performance in wins over Sacred Heart and Marist. Wolfson finished with 12 blocks in both a three-set win against the Pioneers and a four-set win against the Red Foxes.
• It marks just the second time in program history that a Bear has had 12+ blocks in back-to-back matches with the last time being Leyla Goldsmith in 1996 against Columbia and Cornell.

HITTING HIGH

• Sophia Wolfson has already hit over .500 in five matches this season, including a season-best .625 against Bryant. All five of those matches have come with double-figure kills, the lowest a 10-kill performance in Brown’s win over UCF (Sept. 14).
• The last Bear to have at least five matches with over a .500 hitting percentage (min. 10 attacks) was Beau Vanderlaan, who did it seven times back in 2023. Vanderlaan also had five matches of over .500 hitting and double-figure kills during the season.
• Wolfson now has 12 matches with double-figure kills this season. It is the most double-figure kill matches by a Brown middle blocker in a season since at least the 2012 season.

IT’S ABOUT HOW YOU START

• The first set has been instrumental in Brown’s success under head coach Taylor Virtue. When Brown wins the first set this season, they are 10-0 and in the three seasons under Virtue Brown is 34-4 overall when winning the first set.
• If the Bears lose the first set, things have been bleak. Brown is 1-6 this season if they drop the first set and 4-22 under Virtue overall.
• When Brown wins the first two sets of a match they are 29-2 under Virtue but are 1-21 when dropping the first two sets.

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