The Denison volleyball team split a tri-match with Hiram and Earlham on Saturday afternoon in Granville. The Big Red dropped a North Coast Athletic Conference tilt to Hiram, 3-0 (25-21, 26-24, 33-31), but rebounded with a 3-1 (30-28, 25-14, 22-25, 25-13) decision over Earlham in the final match of the day.

DU went toe-to-toe with the Terriers in all three sets of the NCAC match.  After losing a tightly contested opening set, the Big Red pushed both the second and third sets past the 25-point mark before suffering razor-thin decisions.

Sophomore Brittany Perry and freshman Rachele Lock paced the Denison offense with nine kills apiece, while senior Lauren Gustafson added six finishers.  Setters Jessica Borsani and Carly Newell dished out 18 and 10 assists, respectively.  Defensively, junior libero Emily Marguerite had a game-high 22 digs, while senior Sarah Blum and junior Allie Becker chipped in 11 and 10 digs.  At the net, sophomore Kenzie Kuhn finished with three solo blocks and a pair of block assists, while classmate Elena Lein added three solo rejections.

After edging out a 30-28 win in the first set against Earlham, Denison took it to the Quakers with a dominating 25-14 victory in the second.  Earlham forced a fourth set after posting a 25-22 win in the third.  In the final set, the Big Red once again dominated the Quakers via 25-13 score.

Lock and Lein led the attack with 15 and 12 kills, respectively, while Borsani dished out 28 assists.  Marguerite served up three aces to go along with a match-best 25 digs.  In addition to her 12 kills, Lein also recorded three solo blocks and three block assists, while freshman Sarah Bradley also had three solo blocks.

Denison (12-5, 1-1 NCAC) returns to the court on Tuesday when they travel to Wooster for a 7 p.m. match against the Fighting Scots.