No. 3 Denison suffered a 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 25-16) loss to No. 2 Hiram in the semifinals of the 2013 North Coast Athletic Conference tournament from Springfield, Ohio.  The loss sent DU to the tournament's third-place match where they dropped a 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-23) decision to DePauw.

In the opener against Hiram, after dropping the first set 25-20, DU opened the second set strong, taking a 3-0 lead thanks to a pair of attack errors by Hiram.  The Terriers would bounce back and tie the set at 5-5 after a Lindsay Brewer kill, but Denison responded and took a 10-7 advantage thanks to the play of first-year Rachele Lock.  She posted a kill followed by two-straight aces to give her team a three-point lead.

That advantage would balloon to a six-point lead when the Big Red pushed out to a 16-10 lead.  Denison would maintain a 4-5 advantage lead until Hiram secured three of four points to make it a 21-20 set.  Facing the biggest point of the match thus far, Denison's Elena Lein delivered a big kill that was followed up by an error on Hiram's Emily Mortimer.  With the score now 23-20 in favor of Denison, four points later Brittany Perry would deliver the winning point off an assist by Jessica Borsani, securing a 25-22 win for Denison in set No. 2.

In the third set, Denison trailed the entire way and three-straight points by Hiram with the score 18-16 in favor of the Terriers would be the difference.  The result would be a five-point Hiram win heading into the fourth set.

In that pivotal frame, Denison dug a huge hole for themselves at 10-3.  Hiram's attack percentage spiked to .522 in the set (15 of 23) and DU could not counter.  Hiram won the set 25-16, and the match, 3-1, to advance to this evening's NCAC Championship against No. 1 seed, Wittenberg.

Denison was led by Lein who posted 11 kills off 23 attacks. She also added four block assists.  Perry contributed nine kills while Kenzie Kuhn chipped in seven.  Emily Marguerite finished with 19 digs and Borsani led Denison's setters with 22 assists.

Hiram got 15 kills and a sparkling .560 attack percentage from Mortimer.  Marissa Jay followed with 14 kills, while Tierra Moore added 45 assists.  Danielle Day paced Hiram with 14 digs.

In the night cap, DePauw improved to 25-6 on the season, avenging a regular season loss to the Big Red in Greencastle, Ind., with a straight-set win.  The Tigers posted a .254 attack percentage as Lauren Falotico (14), Kelly Doyle (12) and Elisabeth Wilson (11) all reached double-figures in kills.

Denison was led by Perry with nine kills, and Lauren Gustafson finished with eight kills.  Marguerite tallied 21 digs.  At the conclusion of the tournament, Perry was named to the 2013 NCAC All-Tournament team.

With today's pair of tournament losses, Denison's season comes to a close at 20-9.  DePauw secured a third-place finish in the final standings.  The Championship will take place at 7:30 p.m. between top-seeded Wittenberg and No. 2 seed, Hiram.