GRANVILLE, Ohio (October 6, 2021) – The Denison University volleyball team won 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 21-25, 25-18) over Ohio Wesleyan University on Wednesday night inside Livingston Gymnasium.

The story of the night was two key 5-0 runs in the first two sets for Denison to take a 2-0 lead, followed by a big comeback for the Big Red in the fourth set. Additionally, setter Kirby MacKinnon tallied 47 assists and 10 digs for her fifth straight double-double, and her fifth match in her last six reaching 40 or more assists.

The first set was tied 17-17 before the first 5-0 run, this one ending on an assisted block by Corinne Boyd and Sidney Gossard to make it 22-17 Big Red. Sophia Sobota then added kills on each of Denison's final three points, giving her seven of Denison's 16 kills in the opening set.

Then in the second set, it was another 5-0 Big Red run that helped make the difference as this time, the run started with Denison trailing 16-15 and put the Big Red ahead 20-16. The first three points of that run were a kill by Gossard, a solo block by Lucy Anderson, and an assisted block by Anderson and Gossard.

After kills by Anderson gave Denison each of its next two points and made it 22-18, Daria Rodriguez came up with kills to make it 23-19 and then win it at 25-20 with her ninth kill of the match to that point.

Denison hit .282 percent compared to .184 percent for Ohio Wesleyan in the first set; and in the second set, the Big Red reached .375 percent while the Battling Bishops were only at .100 percent.

The third set saw Rodriguez net four kills in a row to bring Denison from down 7-5 to up 9-7. Then down 16-12, Denison battled back as a block by Gossard jumpstarted a 4-0 run. Anderson came up with a block followed by a kill to tie it at 16-16, but unfortunately, OWU answered with a 5-2 run to go ahead 21-18 and went on to win a third set in which both teams had 17 kills and hit over .340 percent.

The Battling Bishops then kept their momentum going with an early 6-2 lead in the fourth set, and it took until 13-13 for the Big Red to comeback and tie it. From there, Denison immediately went back down by two at 15-13, but the Big Red answered in a big way with a 4-0 run to take a 17-15 advantage.

That run continued to grow as a six straight points by Denison highlighted by four more kills by Rodriguez and two assisted blocks made it 23-16 Denison, and made it a 10-1 run in all for the Big Red. The final two points of the night for Denison both came on kills by Boyd.

Individually, Denison had four players with 10-plus kills and had four with 10-plus digs. Rodriguez led with a match-high 20 kills on a .313 attack percentage, Sobota was next with 17 kills on a .333 percentage, Boyd tied her career-high with 11 kills, and Anderson had 10 kills to go along with a .417 attack percentage.

Defensively, Jenna Corrao had a match-high 16 digs, and was followed by Payton McElfresh and Maddie Kurtz both with 14.

Last but not least, Gossard had a season-high five total blocks while Boyd and Anderson both had three.

With the win, Denison improved to 12-5 overall and remained undefeated in the North Coast Athletic Conference at 3-0.

Additionally, the Big Red have now won eight of their last nine matches heading into Senior Day, which will be at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 9, against the College of Wooster.