Volume 11, November 17, 2009

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Princeton senior Sheena Donohue (Los Gatos, Calif.) had one of the best weekends of her career in leading the Tigers to a sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth with a pair of dominant double-doubles. On Friday night versus the Big Green, Donohue had 26 kills and 17 digs. The next night against the Crimson, she added 25 more kills and 11 digs, while hitting a scorching .386. For the weekend, Donohue averaged 5.7 kills and 3.1 digs per set and hit .345 for the weekend, on her way to scoring 51 total points.

Yale senior Cat Dailey (Newport Beach, Calif.) recorded her 10th and 11th double-doubles of 2009 this past weekend as the Bulldogs swept a pair of Ivy League foes in the Bulldogs’ final home contests of the season. The reigning Ivy League Player of the Year averaged 4.17 kills with a scorching .489 (25-3-45) hitting percentage in six sets of action against Columbia and Cornell. She was also a force in the back row of the Yale set, piling up 4.17 digs per frame and landing six service aces. In Friday night’s sweep of the Lions, Dailey had a match-best 13 kills (13-2-23, .478) with 11 digs and three aces. She was dominant once again on Saturday against Big Red, totaling 12 kills (12-1-22, .500) with 13 digs, three more services and a solo block.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Penn freshman right side hitter Lauren Martin (Bedford, Texas) was the Quakers' most efficient hitter this weekend, as Penn clinched the Ivy title outright. Martin hit .380 and had 42 kills (4.67) while also adding seven digs and five total blocks in nine sets. The first year had 22 kills and six digs in a five set loss to Harvard on Friday and then hit .548 with 20 kills and a career high five total blocks in the clinching match over Dartmouth on Saturday.

Harvard freshman Taylor Docter (Los Altos, Calif.) recorded 13 kills and a career-high seven blocks in the Crimson's 3-2 upset win over previously-unbeaten Penn. She hit .208 on the night with two solo blocks. Docter added nine kills and three blocks in a 3-1 loss to Princeton. She is third on the team in kills with 2.46 per set.

THE HONOR ROLL
Brown junior outside hitter Brianna Williamson (Cincinnati, Ohio) was all over the court over the weekend, leading the Bears to a sweep of Cornell and an incredibly close 3-2 loss to Columbia. She was second on the team in both kills and digs, finishing with 24 and 22 respectively, good for averages of 3.00 and 2.75 per set. Williamson also helped bolster Brown's league leading serving game, finishing with a pair of aces in the two matches as Brown picked up its second league win of the season.

Columbia senior captain and libber Ellie Thomas (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) finished her career with a bang, as she notched 21 digs in the last weekend of play, including 14 in a thrilling 3-2 win over Brown. The libero set a new single-season record for digs, with 473 on the year, surpassing her own record of 400, set in 2007. Thomas also set a new career mark for digs, as she graduates the all-time leader in Columbia history, with 1,408 digs to her name. Thomas was a key part of a Columbia squad that recorded one of the best volleyball seasons in recent memories, with the team’s first Ivy League win over Cornell since 2001, the most overall wins since 2001, and the program’s best Ivy League record since 2005.

In a very tight five-set match against Princeton, Dartmouth senior outside hitter Morgan Covington (Katy, Texas) chipped in eight kills while hitting .227. She also had one dig and two blocks. The next night against league-leading Penn she helped her team stay in the match by hitting a team-leading .414 with 12 kills. She also had three digs and two blocks. She closed out her Dartmouth career fourth in total blocks with 225.

Harvard sophomore libero Christine Wu (Naperville, Ill.) led the Crimson on defense over the weekend averaging 5.64 digs per set. She posted 24 digs and four service aces in Harvard’s win over Penn. Her efforts at libero kept the Crimson in the match allowing the Crimson to hand Penn its first conference loss of the season. Against Princeton, Wu posted 27 digs (6.75 per set). Wu leads the Crimson with 5.11 digs and 0.28 service aces per set.

Penn junior libber Madison Wojciechowski (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) was all over the court for the Quakers this weekend. The junior libero had 67 digs (7.44) and also broke her own school record of 511 digs in a season, finishing Saturday with 545 on the year. Against Harvard on Friday she dug 39 balls, one shy of the school record of 40 she set last year. On Saturday versus Dartmouth, she added 28 more to help the Quakers clinch their first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2003.

Princeton freshman Lydia Rudnick averaged 3.6 kills and 3.0 digs per set in a sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth and scored 31 total points with a pair of double-doubles over the weekend.

Yale freshman setter Kerry Clavadetscher (Seattle, Wash.) ran a Bulldogs’ offense that hit a solid .293 in home sweeps of Columbia and Cornell this past weekend. Clavadetscher distributed 10.83 assists per frame and chipped in defensively with 1.67 digs and 1.00 blocks per set. On Friday against the Lions, Clavadetscher doled out a match-best 36 assists, while adding a pair of kills and three asssts to her statline. In Saturday’s sweep of Big Red, she had a match-high 29 assists before handing the setting reigns over to junior Kate Parker midway through the third set. Clavadetscher also contributed three digs, three kills and three blocks to the Bulldogs’ victory over Cornell

Brown freshman Katrina Post (Pasadena, Calif.) continued her season-long ascent, recording perhaps her best weekend yet, and leading the Bears to a sweep over Cornell and nearly pulling the upset in a 3-2 loss to Columbia. Post led the team with 27 kills, averaging 3.38 per set, and added 10 digs and an ace. She was particularly dangerous against Columbia, finishing the match with 16 kills and seven digs, pushing the Lions to extra points in the fifth set.

2009-10 AWARDWINNERS
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sept. 8 — Ashley Hawkins (Penn) / Cat Dailey (Yale)
Sept. 14 — Megan Gaughn (Columbia)
Sept. 22 — Laurel Johnson (Yale)
Sept. 29 — Alexis Crusey (Yale)
Oct. 6 — Jordan Reeder (Cornell)
Oct. 13 — Madeline Baird (Dartmouth)
Oct. 20 — Elizabeth Semmens (Penn)
Oct. 27 — Sheena Donohue (Princeton)
Nov. 3 — Megan Tryon (Penn)
Nov. 10 — Elizabeth Semmens (Penn) / Sheena Donohue (Princeton)
Nov. 17 — Sheena Donohue (Princeton) / Cat Dailey (Yale)

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Sept. 8 — Taylor Docter (Harvard)
Sept. 14 — Megan Gaughn (Columbia)
Sept. 22 — Lauren Martin (Penn)
Sept. 29 — Megan Gaughn (Columbia)
Oct. 6 — Kerry Clavadetscher (Yale)
Oct. 13 — Lauren Martin (Penn)
Oct. 20 — Kerry Clavadetscher (Yale)
Oct. 27 — Lydia Rudnick (Princeton)
Nov. 3 — Alissa Santa Maria (Dartmouth) / Lauren Martin (Penn)
Nov. 10 — Alissa Santa Maria (Dartmouth) / Lydia Rudnick (Princeton)
Nov. 17 — Lauren Martin (Penn)