Denison closed out its North Coast Athletic Conference postseason run with a 3-0 victory over Ohio Wesleyan in the fifth-place match on Saturday in Springfield, Ohio.

The two conference rivals split the first 12 points of the opening set on Saturday afternoon.  The Bishops recorded four of the next five points to build up a 10-7 edge.  After a Brittany Perry kill and OWU attacking error trimmed the deficit to one, first-year Elena Lein hammered back-to-back kills to give the Big Red an 11-10 lead.  Now trailing 15-14, Denison rattled off six-straight to take a five-point lead.  The run was fueled by kills by Annemarie Fischer, Elsa Manning and Kenzie Kuhn, two Bishops miscues and an ace by Emily Marguerite.  Ohio Wesleyan shrunk the margin to 20-17, but a 4-1 run to close out the set gave DU a 1-0 lead.

The second set was a one-sided affair controlled by Denison.  After garnering a 18-8 lead, the Big Red maintained a double-digit advantage for the rest of the set, including a 13-point lead at 24-11.  Despite a few late points by the Battling Bishops, sophomore setter Jessica Borsani closed out the set with a kill.

The third set was a dog fight between two league rivals.  After Denison took a 14-11 lead midway through the set, Ohio Wesleyan answered with three straight points to tie the match and force DU head coach Lynsey Whisner to call a timeout.

Later in the set, OWU found itself ahead 18-15.  However, the Big Red answered with four unanswered points to regain the advantage.  The rally featured a Perry kill and three Bishop errors.  With the set tied at 23-23, miscues by both teams pushed the score to 24-24.  After an attacking error gave DU a 25-24 edge, OWU's Tamara Londot answered with a kill to square the match once again.  Londot's finisher sparked a string of seven-straight kills by the two squads to push the score to 28-28.

The Big Red earned their fifth match points after Borsani found Perry for her eighth kill of the match.  The marathon match finally came to an end when the sophomore setter connected with Lein for the game-winning kill.

Lein paced the attack with 17 kills and just one error in 27 attempts, while Kuhn recorded 10 kills.  Perry and Fischer also added eight finishers.  Borsani handed out 38 assists in three sets.  Defensively, Perry logged a team-best 15 digs, while Marguerite (13), Sarah Blum (11) and Borsani (10) combined for 34 digs.

On Saturday morning, the Big Red earned a spot in the fifth-place match with a dominating 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-10) win over Oberlin.  As a team, Denison had 40 kills, eight service aces and five blocks.

Lein led the offense with a .650 hitting percentage after recording a game-high 13 kills on 20 attempts.  The rookie also posted four block assists.  Kuhn and Perry also helped the cause with nine and six kills, respectively.  Perry also chipped in three service aces and eight digs.  Borsani dished out 32 helpers, while Marguerite notched 22 digs.

Denison ends the season with a 21-10 record.  DU's win total marks the most victories since the 2002 season when the Big Red posted a 22-9 record.