ADA, Ohio (November 4, 2023) – The Denison University volleyball team won its first set of the day and forced a fifth set in its second match, but in the end, finished off its regular season with a 3-1 (24-26, 25-21, 25-14, 25-10) loss at the hands of host Ohio Northern University before falling 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-13) in the next match against Heidelberg University during the NCAC/OAC Crossover on Saturday.

Match 1 (Denison 1, Ohio Northern 3):

• Corinne Boyd led the Big Red with 15 kills on .333 percent hitting and added three blocks. It was the second most kills in a single match in her career and was her most since a career-high 16 kills against Birmingham-Southern College earlier this season (Sept. 16).
• Katelyn Chiu had her second double-double of the season with 32 assists and 12 digs while Sadie Habeeb led the team with 15 digs.
• Despite falling behind 22-19 after a 4-0 run for the Polar Bears in the first set and then facing set-point down 24-23, Denison responded with back-to-back kills by Boyd followed by an ace from Ryan Kotalik to steal the first-set victory.
• The Big Red then led by scores of 6-2 and 9-3 early in the second set and led 14-10 after a kill by Boyd, but a 5-0 run for ONU starting with a Denison service error and ending with four straight Big Red attack errors gave the Polar Bears their first lead of the set.
• The two teams then traded the next seven points until an attack error by ONU gave Denison a 19-18 lead, and then after a kill and an assisted block by the Polar Bears, another kill for Boyd made it 20-20.
• From there, however, ONU won five of the final six points of the set to even the match at one set apiece.
• Denison then allowed ONU to hit .364 percent (15 kills; 3 errors) in the third set and .265 percent (12 kills; 3 errors) in the fourth.

 
Match 2 (Denison 2, Heidelberg 3):

• Claire Hamilton posted 12 kills while Boyd had 10 to go along with two blocks.
• Ellie Martin had nine kills on .368 percent hitting and added two blocks in what was just her second match of the season.
• Reagan Sass matched Martin with nine kills.
• Kotalik had four service aces and matched her career-high with 11 digs while Alice Kempf had 44 assists and 10 digs. It was Kempf's first double-double since October 21 vs. Hanover College.
• Habeeb had 18 digs while Ayla Dunbar added 13 and Kelly McCaskey had 12. It was McCaskey's first match with double-digit digs since September 16 vs. Berry College.
• Denison jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the final set after a kill by Sass and back-to-back kills by Hamilton and then led it 8-2 after an ace by McCaskey and a block by Martin, but ultimately was unable to hold on for the win as Heidelberg proceeded to go on an 8-1 run to take over the lead at 10-9.
• The Big Red responded with a 3-0 run starting with a kill by Sass and ending with back-to-back aces by Kotalik to go up 12-10, but Heidelberg would not be denied as a Big Red service error was followed by back-to-back kills by Heidelberg to put Denison behind by one (13-12) in the final stages.
• A kill by Dunbar tied it at 13-13, but Denison could not finish it off as again back-to-back kills by Heidelberg this time ended the match.
• Denison hit .263 percent (8 kills; 3 errors) in the final set, but Heidelberg was just a little bit better at .389 percent (8 kills; 1 error).

Next Up: Denison finishes its regular season with a record of 10-17 overall, and will now set its sights on the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament next week. As the tournament's No. 6 seed, the Big Red will open things up on the road for the quarterfinals at third-seeded Wittenberg University starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 7.