Penn libero Addison Pollock hasn’t played in weeks, but her name remains atop Ivy League, NCAA leaderboards

On the morning of Oct. 5, Penn sophomore libero Addison Pollock found out she led Division I volleyball in digs per set and was in the top 15 for total digs.

Later that day, she was in the emergency room and renamed “Toothless Pollock” by a teammate.

After an accident in practice, Pollock hasn’t played in a game since Oct. 3, and her return to the court is unknown. As of Wednesday, though, she’s still atop the NCAA in average digs (5.85 per set) and the Ivy League in total digs (304). Penn, meanwhile, is 10-7 (2-5 Ivy League) and next faces Columbia on Friday (5 p.m., ESPN+).

As a freshman, Pollock was named honorable mention All-Ivy, played in 75 of 90 sets, and led the Ivy League with 360 digs. Before her injury, Pollock had played in every match this season and led the team in digs for 12 of the 13 matches.

When her older brother, Jack Pollock, heard about her national accomplishment, he called her.

“I was like, ‘You’re a beast.
I love you.’ And she was like, ‘Thank you.’ Then I hung up.”

And when two of Addison’s teeth nearly fell out after a collision in practice, she called him again.

Before Addison’s rise to Division I volleyball, she was following Jack’s footsteps. Both were goalies on their soccer teams. They played lacrosse. Basketball. Addison also dabbled in diving, tennis, horseback riding, and flag football.

Jack was the one who encouraged Addison, then going into sixth grade, to try volleyball. She found she excelled at it.

“That was one thing she was better [at] than me,” he said. “And I think when she realized she was better than me at [volleyball], she started continuing to push herself.”

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Jack, a junior at Michigan, puts Addison’s game on the TV at his fraternity’s chapter house. But he remains her friendly competitor.

“I can’t give her that,” he said of who’s more athletic. “I think I’m a little more athletic, but she’s definitely a great athlete.”

During a drill at practice on Oct. 5, Pollock and another teammate went for a tip midcourt when Pollock’s face smashed into the teammate’s shoulder.

“She was extremely distressed,” senior outside hitter Zada Sanger said. “I mean, her teeth were not in her head. … She was in a lot of pain, and that was clear.”

Pollock’s front tooth and the tooth next to it were knocked out of socket, and her mouth was fractured. She needed a splint and two root canals.

Pollock didn’t know when she could return to play. She had to be on a liquid diet for two weeks. She was concerned her smile would never look the same.

In her own words, it was “obviously kind of sucky.”

Junior right side hitter Jenniya Lane changed Pollock’s contact information to “Toothless Pollock” on her phone but assured her, “‘You know, it could be worse. You could have actually no teeth.’”

The team rallied to support Pollock. Junior outside hitters Jenna Garner and Ellie Siskin brought her soup and a smoothie. Lane and Sanger visited with Van Leeuwen ice cream — cookies and cream, birthday cake, and honeycomb.

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When Sanger saw Pollock back at her dorm, she said the sophomore was “somehow still optimistic. … It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming to see.”

Sanger and Lane understood the frustration and fear behind such an injury.

“I mean, [the dentist] physically had to go in and maneuver her teeth back into place, and I don’t think that’s anything that anyone would ever think about going through in a sport that’s supposed to be noncontact,” Lane said.

Added Sanger: “I understand that feeling of scarcity. You only have so many years of playing college volleyball, and Penn volleyball specifically.”

But Pollock already was searching for the positives.

“I’m also looking forward to the life skills that this will teach me,” she said.

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Pollock described her position, libero, as “the battery, the energizer of the team,” because the libero flies across the floor just to lift the ball into the air one more time. The “scrap of it,” the 5-foot-8 Pollock said, as well as a libero’s preferred height — “it’s really easy to be short” — is what drew her to the position.

Pollock learned from her parents that “if I want something, I have to work for it.”

So when she was recruiting for volleyball, she would email 75 schools before every tournament with her schedule and clips of her playing. She ultimately chose Penn in the fall of 2023 from a list that included Columbia, Yale, and Pitt, even though it had gone 2-22 a season ago.

Pollock appreciated the blend of athletics, academics, and social life Penn offered, but also, “I tend to root for the underdog,” she said.

“One of the things I admire about her is [that] she’s very unapologetically who she is,” Sanger said.

Whether in her identity as a Jewish student-athlete or as a female volleyball player, Pollock isn’t afraid to speak up.

On the court, she wears No. 18, a significant number in Jewish culture, and a Star of David necklace. For Rosh Hashanah, she brought in challah bread, honey, and apples for the team to enjoy. It’s a pride she shares with Jack.

“I don’t think either of us are scared of anything,” he said. “I think both of us feel very confident in our identities, and if someone has a problem with either me or my sister being Jewish, I think they could take it up with us, and I honestly would love that.”

Three days after her injury, on Thursday, Pollock went to listen to former Hamas hostage Omar Shem Tov speak about his experience at an event hosted by multiple colleges’ Jewish student groups. Then, on Friday, she supported her teammates as they faced Brown, joining the huddles and saying quick words to a teammate during timeouts. Penn won the match, 3-2.

As Pollock put it, “Never underestimate the duality of an Ivy League student.”