BEREA, Ohio (Oct. 19) – The Denison University volleyball team returned to game action after a 10-day layoff and dropped a tough five-set road decision Saturday to host Baldwin Wallace in non-conference play. 
 
Baldwin Wallace 3, Denison 2 (17-25, 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 8-15)
 
The Yellow Jackets opened the match with a 25-17 victory in the opening set. Baldwin-Wallace broke open a tight first set. Following a Cailey Johns kill for Denison which trimmed the B-W lead to 17-16, the hosts ripped off eight of the final nine points of the opening set. 
 
Four-straight points, which included back-to-back kills by Maeve Perry, gave Denison an early 9-6 lead in the second set. B-W eventually countered to take a 15-13 lead with a run of its own. The Yellow Jackets led by a 19-17 margin before a strong close to the second set helped the Big Red even things up. Five-straight points, which was capped by a service ace from Alice Kempf, made it 22-19 Denison. A few moments later, a kill by Ayla Dunbar gave the Big Red a 25-21 win. 
 
Denison raced out to an early led in the third. After momentarily giving up said advantage, Denison responded with five-straight points to lead 15-12. Kills by Dunbar and a service ace by Whitley Metz fueled the run. Claire Hamilton tacked on a pair of kills to bolster the advantage to 19-14. B-W eventually cut the deficit to a single point, but Denison got five-straight kills to swell the lead to 24-18. Another kill by Hamilton eventually finished off the victory at 25-22. 
 
Needing a win in the fourth set, B-W did what they needed to do to force a fifth set. The Yellow Jackets built an early lead before methodically pulling away. B-W scored four of the final six points to even the match at 2-2.

The Big Red got off to a slow start in the fifth set and never recovered. After recording a service ace to start the final set, Baldwin-Wallace tallied six-straight points to take the lead for good. Denison trimmed the deficit to three points at 7-4 but B-W continued to build upon that lead. The Yellow Jackets led by six points for the remainder of the set after building its lead to 12-5.
 
Hamilton finished with a team-best 14 kills. Dunbar also reached double figures with 10 kills. Johns tacked on eight kills and three total blocks. 
 
Sadie Habeeb produced a team-best 23 digs to pace the defensive efforts. Kempf finished with 37 assists, 18 digs and four kills. 
 
Up Next: Denison returns to North Coast Athletic Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 23 when they host Oberlin College. Start time is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Livingston Gymnasium.