Denison rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win the final three sets and secure a thrilling 3-2 (22-25, 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 18-16) victory over the Kenyon College Ladies in front of a rowdy crowd inside Livingston Gymnasium on Friday night.

After dropping the opening point of the fifth and final set, Kenyon rattled off six-straight which forced Big Red head coach Lynsey Whisner to call a timeout.  The two squads traded off the next four points, pushing the score to 8-3.  After the two teams switched courts, the Denison offense woke up and scored six of the next eight points to trim the deficit to 10-9.  The DU rally forced Kenyon to burn its first timeout of the set.

Coming out of the stoppage, senior Kristen Hughes tied the match at 10-10, while a pair of Kenyon hitting errors allowed Denison to build a two-point lead.  The three-point run forced the Ladies to call their final timeout of the set.  Hughes hammered another kill out of the timeout to put the Big Red up 13-10.  Facing match point at 14-12, Kenyon rallied to tie the match behind a DU hitting error and an ace by Kelly Heilman.  The Ladies regained the lead when Sierra DeLeon finished her eighth kill of the match.

Out of Denison's final timeout of the fifth set, senior Lauren Strowder found the floor with a thunderous kill to tie the match at 15-15.  Senior setter Claire Koneval put DU back on top with a kill.  However, a Big Red attacking error knotted the match back up at 16-16.  Denison set up match point once again behind another finisher from Strowder.  The marathon contest finally came to an end when Kenyon put their final attack into the net.

Kenyon captured the first two sets by identical 25-22 scores.  In the opener, the Ladies used an 8-1 run to rally from a four-point deficit.  In set number two, Kenyon regained the advantage at 18-17 and never looked back en route to a 2-0 match lead.

Denison turned things around in the third set.  After surrendering the first point, the Big Red scored the next five en route to building a 15-6 lead.  The Ladies battled back and eventually trimmed the deficit to three at 21-18.  However, senior Megan Early and Koneval logged back-to-back kills to retake a five-point edge.  After a Kenyon passing error set up set point, Hughes secured DU's first win of the night with a kill.

Like the previous three set, the fourth was filled with lead changes.  The Big Red tied the match when senior Brittany Brannon found the floor for one of her two aces on the night.  Brannon gave DU the lead with another serve that the Ladies had no chance at returning.  Kenyon was able to tie the match on two separate occasions, but a 6-2 Denison run to close out the game set up the fifth and deciding set.

Strowder finished the night with a career-high 25 kills, while Hughes had a career-high 19 kills and just two errors on 35 attempts.  Early also logged 12 kills and served up two aces on the night.  First-year Emily Marguerite also had two aces, while Koneval dished out a career-high 67 assists.  Defensively, senior Brooke Beavers logged 22 digs, while Marguerite and Brannon collected 19 and 18 digs, respectively.  At the net, Koneval had two solo blocks, while rookie Madison Owen notched two block assists.

Denison improves to 11-16 overall and 6-9 in the North Coast Athletic Conference, while the Ladies fall to 13-17 and 7-8 in league play.  DU closes out the 2011 season on Saturday (Oct. 29) when they host Ohio Wesleyan University at 1 p.m.