GRANVILLE, Ohio (September 28, 2022) – The final match before the start of North Coast Athletic Conference action for the Denison University volleyball team saw the Big Red take down Bluffton University 3-0 (25-12, 25-12, 25-12) on Wednesday night inside Livingston Gymnasium.

In addition to heading into conference play with a win, Denison (6-9 overall) also ended Bluffton's (12-5) seven-match winning streak, and handed the Beavers their first road loss (2-1) of the season.

In all, Denison hit .398 for the match with 41 kills compared to 21 kills for the Beavers. Cailey Johns led the Big Red with a career-high 12 kills and a crazy .688 attack percentage while Lucy Anderson finished with 10 kills and a percentage of .588. Kelly McCaskey added nine kills and hit .348 percent while Sidney Gossard hit .333 percent with five kills.

Sophie Tight dished out 31 assists for Denison while Jenna Corrao recorded 11 digs, Alice Kempf had four service aces and Anderson had four blocks.

The Big Red wasted little time asserting their dominance in this one, securing the first four points of the match and jumping out to leads of 12-5 on a kill by McCaskey and 15-6 on a kill by Anderson.

A kill by Johns followed by a Bluffton attack error doubled up the score at 20-10 in the first set, and then a kill by Gossard made it 21-10. The Big Red then won the first set on four straight points featuring another kill by Johns, an assisted block by Corinne Boyd and Anderson, and back-to-back service aces by Corrao.

In all for the first set, Denison finished with 14 kills and only one error for a very impressive .542 attack percentage while limiting Bluffton to only 0.74 percent (8 kills, 6 errors).

In the second set, Denison overcame an early 4-1 deficit and used a 9-1 run featuring two kills by both Anderson and McCaskey in addition to a solo block and an ace by Anderson to take a 10-5 advantage. Then after Bluffton got to within two at 11-9, the Big Red answered with a 6-1 run featuring four attack errors by the Beavers and ending with an ace by Corrao to make it 17-10.

To finish off the second set, a kill by Anderson made it 18-11, back-to-back aces by Kempf made it 20-11, and then a Bluffton service error and attack error started a 5-0 Big Red run to end the set on another kill by McCaskey.

Tied 4-4 in the third set, Denison secured six straight points starting and ending with a kill by Johns to make it 10-4.

A kill by Boyd followed by an ace by Kempf made it 16-7 before the fifth kill of the set by Johns made it 21-11, and then a solo block by Johns made it 22-11. The sixth kill of the third set by Johns got it to 23-12 before Johns and Gossard combined on an assisted block to bring up match point, and then a kill from Boyd ended the night with a third straight 25-12 score.

Denison will kick off conference play on the road at the College of Wooster this weekend as the Big Red and the Fighting Scots square off beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 1. It will be a good chance for the Big Red to get on the right track in conference play against the team that knocked them out of the NCAC Tournament semifinals a year ago.