OBERLIN, Ohio (October 19, 2021) – The Denison University volleyball team earned its eighth win in a row overall and sixth straight win in the North Coast Athletic Conference with a 3-0 (25-8, 25-16, 25-19) victory on the road at Oberlin College on Wednesday night.

It was a fast start for Denison (17-5 overall, 6-0 NCAC), which led 11-0 in the first set on five kills by Lucy Anderson and three service aces by Payton McElfresh.

In the first set, the reigning NCAC Athlete of the Week Kirby MacKinnon had 10 assists, Anderson had six kills, and Daria Rodriguez had five kills on a perfect 1.000 attack percentage.

The Big Red then fell behind 3-0 in the second set before going up 5-4 on an assisted block by Anderson and Sophia Sobota. Tied at 6-6, a kill by Sobota put Denison up 7-6, followed by kills by Rodriguez and Anderson to make it 9-6 and put the Big Red up for the rest of the set.

Anderson and Rodriguez both added four more kills in the second set while MacKinnon had 11 more assists.

Denison trailed 14-11 in the last set but came back to tie it on a kill by Cailey Johns, and then took the lead at 16-14 on back-to-back kills by Rodriguez. Another kill by Rodriguez made it 17-15, another kill by Johns made it 18-15, and then Rodriguez continued to pour it on with yet another kill to make it 19-15.

Johns then combined with Sidney Gossard for an assisted block to make it a 9-1 run for the Big Red in all.

In the end, Denison hit .301 percent for the match and worked to limit Oberlin to .074 percent.

Rodriguez finished with 16 kills on a .538 attack percentage, Anderson had 13 kills on a .458 percentage, MacKinnon had 33 assists and Jenna Corrao had 17 digs. Additionally, McElfresh had nine digs and three aces, Maddie Kurtz had eight digs, and both Anderson and Sobota had three block assists.

The Big Red have now won 13 of their last 14 matches and have one more match remaining before a potential tilt with Wittenberg University at home to decide the NCAC Regular-Season Championship. Before that, Denison will have to get past Allegheny College at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 23, in Meadville, Pennsylvania.