DANVILLE, Ky. (September 15, 2023) – The first day of the Colonel Invitational saw the Denison University volleyball team fall 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-23) against the hosts from Centre College on Friday night in Kentucky.

Centre, which was coming off a 3-2 (22-25, 18-25, 28-26, 25-21, 15-13) comeback victory over Wittenberg University just before playing Denison, did not show any ill effects from the previous match and notched 12 kills in the opening set while holding Denison to a negative hitting percentage in each of the first two sets.

In the third set, a 6-0 Big Red run featuring a service ace by Katelyn Chiu and ending with a kill by Lauren Brown tied it at 22-22. That was followed by a service error and then a Centre attack error to tie it at 23-23 before back-to-back kills by the Colonels ended the night.

Denison was held to a season-low in kills (21), attempts (94), attack percentage (.021), assists (18) and digs (33).

Cailey Johns led Denison in kills with six while hitting .333 percent and adding four blocks.

Denison dropped to 4-5 overall on the season while Centre improved to 6-3 after its two wins on the day.

Denison will continue action at the Colonel Invitational tomorrow afternoon (Sept. 16) as the Big Red take on Birmingham-Southern College at 1:30 p.m., followed by No. 14 nationally-ranked Berry College (Ga.) at 4 p.m.