PITTSBURGH, Pa. (October 29, 2022) – The Denison University volleyball team finished off its regular season with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-20) sweep at the hands of host Carnegie Mellon University before falling 3-2 (17-25, 18-25, 25-20, 25-21, 15-8) in the very next match against SUNY Brockport during the CMU Tri-Match on Saturday.

Match 1 (Denison 0, Carnegie Mellon 3):

• Playing against a Carnegie Mellon team that is receiving votes in the most recent AVCA Division III Coaches Poll, the Big Red were led by Sophie Tight with 25 assists and Jenna Corrao with 22 digs.
• In the first set, Denison was within one at 20-19 before back-to-back kills for the Tartans, and then after a kill by Kelly McCaskey made it a 22-20 deficit, another kill by CMU followed by a service ace and an assist blocked ended it.
• After winning the first set on a 5-1 run, CMU opened up the second set with an 8-1 run before Denison battled back to within one at 14-13. Then with the Big Red down by one at 19-18 after a kill by McCaskey, CMU again got back-to-back kills to go up by three at 21-18 before winning the last three points of the set.
• It was 17-17 in the final set before a 5-0 Tartans' run featuring four kills and a service ace made it 22-17. A kill by Emma Goss, a service ace by McCaskey and a kill by Cailey Johns got the Big Red back to within two at 22-20 before CMU again won the set with three straight points starting with a Denison service error.

 
Match 2 (Denison 2, SUNY Brockport 3):

• In what was the first ever matchup between the two teams, Denison won each of the first two sets and led 3-0 to start the fifth set, but was unable to finish it off as SUNY broke a 6-6 tie with three straight points.
• Then after a kill by McCaskey made it a two-point deficit at 9-7, four straight points for the Golden Eagles starting with a Big Red service error and followed by back-to-back service aces made it 13-7 and put it out of reach as another Denison service error brought it to match point at 14-8.
• Lucy Anderson finished with 19 kills on a .436 attack percentage while McCaskey added 11 kills and Johns had nine.
• Tight had 43 assists while Corrao had 21 digs, McCaskey had 15, Alice Kempf had 12 and both Tight and Sadie Habeeb had 10.
• For McCaskey, it was her fourth double-double in her last five matches.
• Corrao and Kempf both had five aces while Anderson also added four blocks.

 
Next Up: Denison finishes its regular season with a record of 12-12 overall, and will now set its sights on the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament next weekend (Nov. 4-5) at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. As the No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Big Red have earned a bye into the NCAC semifinals at 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 5. Should Denison win that one, the NCAC Tournament Championship match is slated for 5 p.m. later that evening.