Second Half of Ivy League Play Starts Up Saturday

Saturday, October 20

Ithaca, N.Y.

2:00 P.M.

Columbia University

Cornell

Volleyball Point Celebration High Baseline 2018

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Maryam K. Hassan

Second Half of Ivy League Play Starts Up Saturday

10/16/2018 11:04:00 AM | Volleyball

Watch on ESPN+Live Stats

Volleyball travels to Cornell looking to turn around its luck on the road

NEW YORK – The Columbia volleyball team (9-8, 3-4 Ivy) begins the second half its double round robin Ivy League schedule when it travels upstate to battle Cornell (9-8, 4-3 Ivy) on Saturday. First serve from Newman Arena is set for 2 p.m.

Saturday's match will be available on ESPN+. Live stats will be provided by CornellBigRed.com.

IVY LEAGUE UPDATE
Columbia remains in fourth place in the Ivy League standings despite three-set losses at both Penn and Princeton last weekend. The Lions find themselves in a three-way tie alongside Harvard (8-8, 3-4 Ivy) and Dartmouth (7-10, 3-4 Ivy). Cornell sits a game in front in third place and is two games behind league leaders Yale (12-4, 6-1 Ivy) and Princeton (13-5, 6-1 Ivy). Penn earned its first two league wins over the weekend to improve to 2-5. Brown rounds out the standings at 1-6. The full Ivy League standings can be accessed at IvyLeagueSports.com.

LION LEADERS
Kills: Emily Teehan – 195, 3.20/set
Hitting Percentage: Chichi Ikwuazom – .347 (min. 1.00 kill/set)
Assists: Audrey Cheng – 515, 8.44/set
Digs: Kalie Wood – 253, 4.15/set
Blocks: Rose Compton – 47.0, 0.84/set
Aces: Emily Teehan – 25, 0.41/set

IVY LEAGUE LEADERS (TOP 5)
Total Kills: No. 2 – Emily Teehan (195)
Kills/Set: No. 2 – Chichi Ikwuazom (3.57), No. 5 – Emily Teehan (3.20)
Hitting Percentage: No. 3 – Chichi Ikwuazom (.347)
Assists: No. 4 – Audrey Cheng (515)
Assists/Set: No. 5 – Audrey Cheng (8.44/set)
Aces No. 1 – Emily Teehan (25), No. 2 – Kalie Wood (23)
Digs: No. 4 - Kalie Wood (253, 4.15/set)
Blocks/Set: No. 5 – Chichi Ikwuazom (1.08)
Total Points: No. 2 – Emily Teehan (228.5)
Points/Set: No. 1 - Chichi Ikwuazom (4.23/set), No. 3 - Emily Teehan (3.75/set)

LAST TIME OUT
Columbia came up empty in its first road trip of the Ivy League season, falling in three sets to both Penn and Princeton. The Lions struggled through the first two sets Friday night at Penn before finding their rhythm in the third, but the Quakers snapped a 23-all tie with consecutive kills to finish off the sweep. Saturday's match against the defending Ivy League champions saw Columbia take leads of four points or more in both the second and third sets. However, the Lions could not hold on, as Princeton scored 16 of the final 19 points in the second and overcame a 12-8 deficit in the third to finish off the match with seven unanswered points.

TEEHAN GOES BACK TO BACK
First-year Emily Teehan has made an immediate impression on the Ivy League with back-to-back Rookie of the Week selections (Oct. 1, Oct. 8). The rookie's latest honors came after totaling 35 kills, 12 digs, three blocks and two aces in matches against Yale and Brown. She averaged 5.00 kills per set and blasted a career-high 20 kills with a .341 hitting percentage to lead the Lions to a four-set victory over the Bears. Despite a loss against Yale, Teehan racked up a match-high 15 kills against the first-place Bulldogs to go with five digs and three blocks.

IVY LEAGUE WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS
September 17: Player of the Week – Chichi Ikwuazom
October 1: Rookie of the Week – Emily Teehan
October 8: Rookie of the Week – Emily Teehan

IVY LEAGUE WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
September 3: Isa Lamus, Emily Teehan
September 10: Chichi Ikwuazom, Kalie Wood
September 17: Emily Teehan
September 24: Chichi Ikwuazom, Kalie Wood
October 1: Chichi Ikwuazom, Lauren Wilkins
October 8: Isa Lamus
October 15: Luciana Del Valle

ACING THE COMPETITION
Columbia is once again among the nation's best teams in service aces. The Lions enter the weekend ranked No. 28 in the NCAA and sit atop the Ivy League in aces per set (1.61). Emily Teehan (0.41/set) and Kalie Wood (0.38/set) are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the league's statistical rankings. Both have also recorded the most total aces with Teehan at 25 and Wood at 23. Last season, Columbia averaged 1.73 aces per set, ranking No. 1 in the Ivy League and No. 8 in the final NCAA statistical rankings.

HOME DOMINANCE
Columbia boasts a home record of 23-7 (.767) since the start of the 2016 season. The Lions went 11-3 at home in 2016, 7-2 last season and are 5-2 this year. Over that time, the Lions are also 14-5 (.737) in home Ivy League matches, going 6-1 in 2016 and 5-2 in 2017. Last season, the Lions defeated eventual Ivy League champion Princeton at Levien Gymnasium in five sets, marking the first win over the Tigers since 2012.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

Cornell (9-8, 4-3 Ivy)
Series: Cornell leads 40-12 (since 1988)
Last Meeting: Sept. 22, 2018 at Columbia
Result: Cornell 3 – Columbia 1 (23-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-27)

Team Leaders:
Kills: Carla Sganderlla – 180, 3.46/set
Hitting Pct: Jenna Phelps – .331 (min. 20 sets played)
Assists: Zoe Chamness – 433, 6.56/set
Digs: Lily Barber – 291, 4.34/set
Blocks: Jenna Phelps – 66.0, 1.08/set … Jada Stackhouse – 66.0, 1.05/set
Aces: Lily Barber – 17, 0.25/set

Cornell opened Ivy League play with four consecutive victories for the first time since 2005 but have dropped its last three matches since. The Big Red opened league play with a four-set victory at Columbia before returning home where they defeated Harvard (3-1), Dartmouth (3-0) and Brown (3-2). Yale ended the streak with a four-set victory in Ithaca and the Big Red fell at both Princeton (3-0) and Penn (3-1) this past weekend. Cornell ranks No. 30 in the NCAA in opponent hitting percentage (.162), which they put on display three weeks ago when they held the Lions to a .173 mark in New York. They also rank No. 1 in the Ivies in opponent kills (10.97/set) and opponent assists (10.15/set). Carla Sganderlla leads the attack with 3.46 kills per set, which also ranks No. 3 in the Ivy League. Junior libero Lily Barber ranks No. 2 in the Ivies in digs per set (4.34). Cornell is coached by 2017 Ivy League Coach of the Year, Trudy Vande Berg.

WATCH ON ESPN+
After the Ivy League announced its partnership with ESPN, all home and Ivy League volleyball matches are scheduled to be played on the ESPN+ this fall. To sign up for ESPN+ for as low as $4.99/month or $49.99/annually, and catch all the action this season click here.