ROCHESTER, N.Y. (October 14, 2023) – The final day of the Brick City Invitational saw the Denison University volleyball team win its first match of the day, 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-8), over the tournament hosts from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Denison then got right back onto the court to take on the No. 23 nationally-ranked team in NCAA Division III, Ithaca College, but the Big Red fell to the Bombers by a score of 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-20) themselves.
 
Match 1 (Denison 3, RIT 0):

• Denison won the first set after six kills from Claire Hamilton to go along with five service aces as a team, and then Hamilton added five more kills in the second set as the Big Red hit .429 percent.
• Leading 18-17 in the first set, Denison got four straight points ending with a solo block by Emma Goss to take a five-point lead. Then after three straight points by RIT, a kill by Hamilton and an ace by Cailey Johns got it to set-point, and three points later a kill by Hamilton got the Big Red on the board up 1-0.
• The second set was tied at 7-7 before a 7-1 run ending with back-to-back kills by Johns. Up 14-8, the Big Red only surrendered seven points the rest of the way.
• The final set saw Denison jump out to an 11-2 lead and never look back.
• Hamilton led the Big Red with 13 kills and nine digs while hitting .348 percent.
• Goss was next with six kills and Alice Kempf had 27 assists.
• The only previous meeting between Denison and RIT was a 3-2 loss for the Big Red in a match played at Case Western Reserve University in 2016.

 
Match 2 (Denison 0, No. 23 Ithaca 3):

• Corinne Boyd recorded seven blocks while Goss was just one behind with six.
• Goss, Johns and Hamilton all finished with six kills while Kempf had 18 assists and matched Sadie Habeeb with a team-high 10 digs.
• The closest set was the second set as a kill by Boyd and back-to-back kills by Hamilton cut the Denison deficit to just one point (22-21). Then after a Big Red service error, a kill by Johns made it 23-22, but back-to-back kills by the Bombers gave them a 2-0 lead.
• In the final set, a 4-0 Denison run starting with back-to-back kills by Goss and Ayla Dunbar and ending with back-to-back assisted blocks by Boyd and Goss made it a 23-20 deficit, but again, back-to-back kills for Ithaca ended it.
• It was the first ever meeting between Denison and Ithaca.

Next Up: Denison will head back into conference play at Oberlin College with first serve scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 18.