HIRAM, Ohio (September 30, 2023) – It took five sets, but the Denison University volleyball team picked up its first conference win of the season with a 3-2 (19-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 15-9) decision at Hiram College.

Freshman Claire Hamilton was great for the second match in a row, recording a career-high in kills, this time with 17, all while hitting .371 percent.

Hamilton was followed by Cailey Johns with 13 kills on .435 percent hitting while Sophia Sobota finished with 12 kills for the second match in a row and totaled a career-high 13 digs for her first-career double-double.

Emma Goss also contributed with eight kills and seven digs and hit .333 percent in her first action of the season.

Alice Kempf recorded 27 assists while Sadie Habeeb led in digs with 21 and Ryan Kotalik set a new career-best with 11 digs.

Facing a 2-1 deficit, Denison trailed for the majority of the fourth set until tying it at 18-18 with three straight points and then winning seven of the final nine points of the set. A 5-0 run starting with three straight kills by Hamilton and ending with a service ace by Habeeb made it 23-19 Big Red.

Then in the all-important fifth set, kills by Hamilton, Johns and then again by Hamilton gave Denison an early 3-1 lead.

Another kill by Hamilton started a 5-0 run that made it 8-2 Denison after a kill by Johns.

A kill by Goss and an ace by Ayla Dunbar then made it 10-3 before a 4-0 run starting with a kill by Johns and ending with an ace, also by Johns, got it to set-point at 14-4.

Hiram rattled off the next five points before a kill by Sobota ended the match in Denison's favor.

Denison hit .667 percent (10 kills; 0 errors) in the fifth set to close out the victory while Hiram had only two kills and one error (.091 percent).

Denison improves to 7-8 overall and 1-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference while Hiram falls to 4-12 and 1-1.

Senior Day is next up for the Big Red as they host the College of Wooster at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 7. Wooster fell 3-0 at home against Hiram a week ago (Sept. 23).