Women's Volleyball Weekly Release - Week 8

Harvard's Taylor Docter and Yale's Kelly Johnson

Photos courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications and Yale Sports Publicity

PRINCETON, N.J. -- A very light schedule for Ivy League women's volleyball this week with only four matches going into the second half of the double round-robin schedule.

Yale is the League's hottest team, winning its last eight matches and starting 7-0 in Ivy play. The Bulldogs have only surrended three sets in conference play. Yale took sole possession of first place last Friday in 3-1 victory to give Princeton its first Ivy loss.

The Tigers had been a streak of their own, victorious in five-straight matches, before falling to the Bulldogs in four sets. Princeton hosts Penn this Friday night and has its mind on a season sweep of its travel-partner rival. The two squads battled to five sets on Sept. 22 with the Tigers emerging with the win at The Palestra.

Penn also had a winning streak ended by Yale as the Bulldogs swept the Quakers this past Saturday to stop their winning ways at three straight. Penn looks to rebound this week against Princeton and move within one game of the second-place Tigers.

Harvard hopes to keep its winning streak going and keep pace with Penn in its Friday night matchup with Dartmouth. The Crimson is tied with the Quakers at 4-3 in League play and is a win away from a season-best three-match winning streak.

Ivy League in the NCAA Statistics
The Ivy League is among the NCAA Division I leaders in several individual and team statistical categories through matches of Oct. 14.

Penn junior libero Dani Shepherd continues to lead NCAA Division I in digs per set at 6.6. She remains in stiking distance of challenging the all-time, single-single mark of 6.87 set last season by Villanova's Kim Maroon. The Quakers are also still in the top spot in the same category at 21.52 per game. Yale sits right behind Penn in second at 19.87 digs per set. The Bulldogs are also in the top 10 in kills (3rd, 15.02) and assists (3rd, 14.04) per set.

Cornell moved into the top 20 in service aces per set in 20th, averaging 1.6 per set, led by junior outside hitter Kelly Marble, who ranked 27th at 0.43. Princeton senior outside hitter Lydia Rudnick moves up the national lists as well, placing 17th in kills (4.37) and 25th in points (4.85) per set. The League has two outiside hitters move into the top 30 in hitting percentage with Columbia junior Heather Braunagel in 22nd (.394) and Princeton sophomore Leah Jordan in 26th (.390).

Click here for the complete NCAA statistics.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Harvard senior outside hitter Taylor Docter (Los Altos, Calif.) helped the Crimson to a weekend sweep of Cornell and Columbia to give the team four wins in its last five matches.

Docter scored a team-high 14 kills with four blocks in Harvard's four-set win over Cornell Friday night. She dominated with a match-best 21 kills, two shy of her career-high of 23, to lead the Crimson to a 3-0 victory over Columbia.

With two service aces over the weekend, Docter moved past current assistant coach Christine Wu for sole possession of sixth place on Harvard's all-time list with 95.

Docter receives her first Player of the Week honor and the first for Harvard since Suzie Trimble won the award on Sept. 25, 2008.

Docter's Weekly Stats
.280 hitting pct., 5.00 K/S, 2.57 D/S, 2 SA, 6 BA

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Yale freshman setter Kelly Johnson (Palos Verdes, Calif.) put another solid all-around weekend leading the Bulldogs in kills (28) and total blocks (7) in a weekend sweep of Princeton and Penn.

In the 3-1 victory over Princeton, Johnson produced a triple-double that included a season-high 19 kills. She hit .421 and added 18 assists and 11 digs. With the fourth set tied at 18, Johnson had a block assist, then on the next point slammed a diagonal kill to give Yale a two-point edge.

The next night, shen just missed a triple-double in a 3-0 win over Penn. She had 13 assists, nine kills and eight digs against the Quakers.

Johnson earns her second-straight and third overall Rookie of the Week honor this season.

Johnson's Weekly Stats
.367 hitting pct., 4.00 K/S, 4.43 A/S, 2.71 D/S, 1 BS, 6 BA

HONOR ROLL
Alex Caldwell, Penn (Fr., RS - San Jose, Calif.)
3.00 K/S, 2.00 D/S, 4.71 A/S, 5 BA

Lauren Martin, Penn (Sr., RS - Bedford, Texas)
.323 hitting pct., 1.86 K/S, 1 BS, 2 BA

Maddie Rudnick, Yale (So., L - Encinitas, Calif.)
5.29 D/S, 1 SA

Bailey Springer, Columbia (Fr., OH - Fort Worth, Texas)
.422 hitting pct., 3.50 K/S, 2.00 D/S

Tiana Woolridge, Princeton (So., MB - Sherman Oaks, Calif.)
.343 hitting pct., 2.00 K/S, 3 SA, 8 BA

Breanna Wong, Cornell (Fr., S - Highlands Ranch, Colo.)
2.86 K/S, 8 BA


UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Friday, October 19
Dartmouth at Harvard, 7 pm
Penn at Princeton, 7 pm

Saturday, October 20
Columbia at Cornell, 2 pm
Brown at Yale, 5 pm

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
September 4 - Kendall Polan, Yale (Jr., S)
September 11 - Haley Wessels, Yale (Sr., MB)
September 18 - Atlanta Moye-McLaren, Columbia (Fr., OH)
September 25 - Kendall Polan, Yale (Jr., S)
October 2 - Lydia Rudnick, Princeton (Sr., OH)
October 9 - Dani Shepherd, Penn (Jr., L)
October 16 - Taylor Docter, Harvard (Sr., OH)
October 23 -
October 30 -
November 6 -
November 13 -

ROOKIES OF THE WEEK
September 4 - Ronnie Bither, Penn (Fr., S)
September 11 - Ronnie Bither, Penn (Fr., S)
September 18 - Atlanta Moye-McLaren, Columbia (Fr., OH) & Kelly Johnson, Yale (Fr., S)
September 25 - Alex Caldwell, Penn (Fr., RS)
October 2 - Alex Caldwell, Penn (Fr., RS)
October 9 - Kelly Johnson, Yale (Fr., S)
October 16 - Kelly Johnson, Yale (Fr., S)
October 23 -
October 30 -
November 6 -
November 13 -

HONOR ROLLS
September 4 - Caitlin Brenton, Columbia (So., OH), Taylor Docter, Harvard (Sr., OH),Kelly Johnson, Yale (Fr., S), Nicole Kincade, Princeton (So. MB), Alexandra Rieckhoff, Brown (Jr., S), Elisa Scudder, Dartmouth (Jr., MB), Emma White, Penn (So., OH)