GAMBIER, Ohio (October 12, 2022) – Sophie Tight dished 37 assists and Kelly McCaskey finished with 14 kills as they helped the Denison University volleyball team earn a 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-21) victory on the road over Kenyon College.

With the win, the Big Red improved to .500 on the season at 9-9 overall and are now 3-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference with three sweeps while Kenyon dropped to 3-15 overall and 1-2 in the conference.

The story of the first set was three runs for Denison, which started the match on a 7-2 run that featured two kills for Sidney Gossard. Then tied at 9-9, the Big Red rattled off a 5-0 run that was capped off with a service ace by McCaskey to give them a 14-9 lead.

The Owls committed three straight errors, two attacking and a service error, to give Denison another five-point advantage at 17-12. Then Kenyon got back to within two of the Big Red at 17-15 and 18-16 before a 4-0 run for Denison ending with a service ace by Sadie Habeeb made it 22-16.

A bad set by the Owls got Denison to 23 points, and then a service error for Kenyon, their fourth of the opening set, brought up set point. Then on the very next serve, Tight delivered Denison's fourth ace of the opening set to secure the victory.

The second set saw the Owls hold an early 12-3 lead before Denison answered with a 7-0 run that included two kills by McCaskey to cut the lead back to two at 12-10.

Then after trailing 20-15 in the second set, Denison continued to fight as back-to-back kills by Lucy Anderson and Cailey Johns followed by a Kenyon ball-handling error reduced the deficit to only one at 21-20.

After tying the set at 23-23 on a kill by McCaskey, an attacking error by the Owls followed by a kill by Tight helped complete the comeback as Denison took the second set 25-23.

In the third and final set, Denison did not lead by more than two until a 6-1 run capped off by another kill from McCaskey made it 16-11.

Back-to-back kills by Johns and McCaskey expanded Denison's lead to six at 19-13, the largest margin of the third set, and then each of Denison's final four points of the match came courtesy of a kill by Anderson.

McCaskey led the Big Red by hitting .345 percent for the match and recording six kills in each of the final two sets. Anderson added eight kills, six of which came in the final set, while Johns was right behind with seven kills.

Jenna Corrao added 18 digs and Habeeb chipped in with four service aces. As a team, Denison finished with nine service aces, including at least one from six different players, but somehow did not make a single block.

Next up, the Big Red will return home for Senior Day to square off against Oberlin College at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 15.