The Denison volleyball team opened up the 2009 season with an impressive outing against Muskingum University.  The Big Red pushed the Muskies to the limit before dropping a 3-1 (25-23, 15-25, 25-21, 25-18) decision on Wednesday evening in New Concord.

In the opening game, the two squads were locked into a see-saw battle as both schools jockeyed for the lead.  Trailing 22-20, DU exploded out of a time out to rattled off three-consecutive points to retake a 23-22 advantage which forced a Muskingum time out.  Like the Big Red, the Muskies ripped off three-straight tallies to win the first game.

The second game started out like the first with both teams trading off points.  After a DU serving error knotted the score at 6-all, Denison went on an 8-0 run to build up a 14-6 lead.  The run was highlighted by two kills and a block by sophomore Megan Early (Findlay, Ohio/Van Buren).  MU was able to trim the deficit to five (15-10), but the Big Red closed the game out on a 10-5 run to tie the match at 1-1.

After battling for points throughout the first 20 points of the game, Denison was able to take a slight 13-10 edge.  However, the Muskies were able to battle back and tie the contest at 14-all.  Muskingum then continued to go on a 6-2 spurt to hold a 20-16 edge.  The Big Red cut the margin to one (20-19) after forcing three Muskie hitting errors.  Coming out of the time out, the Muskies scored five of the next seven points to gain a 2-1 edge in the match.

Following into an early 9-4 hole in the fourth game, Denison battled back to tie the game at 10-10.  The Big Red went on to go on a 4-1 run, which included three kills by sophomore Lauren Strowder (Cleveland Heights, Ohio/Cleveland Heights).  The two squads battled for the next portion of the match with Muskingum taking a 19-18 lead.  MU closed out the match on a 6-0 run to secured the four-set victory.

Strowder paced the DU attack with 15 kills, while Early blocked four shots and sophomore Claire Koneval (Solon, Ohio/Solon) dished off 54 assists.  Defensively, senior Holly Leonard (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) registered 24 digs.

Denison returns to action on this weekend when they travel to Alliance, Ohio for the Mount Union Invitational.  The Big Red open up play on Friday when they take on Adrian at 5 p.m., and follow that up with a match against Mount Union at 7 p.m.