GAMBIER, Ohio (Oct. 29) – The Denison University volleyball team rolled to its third-straight sweep to improve to 6-0 in North Coast Athletic Conference play with a 3-0 win at Kenyon on Tuesday evening. The victory gives Denison head coach
Carter Cassell his 100th win of his collegiate coaching career.
Denison, now 6-0 in the NCAC, will have a chance to finish the regular season slate unbeaten in conference play on Saturday when they head to Wittenberg University. The win Tuesday coupled with a loss by DePauw gives Denison the outright regular season title in the NCAC. Kenyon drops to 1-5 in the conference and 7-19 overall.
Denison 3, Kenyon 0 (25-19, 25-9, 25-15)
The Big Red came out swinging in the first set. Denison took the opening set by a 25-19 margin behind 14 kills and a .244 hitting percentage.
Maeve Perry led the Big Red with five kills in the opening set of play. Denison pushed out to an early 5-1 lead and never trailed during the initial set. Kenyon cut the deficit to a single point on multiple occasions, but Denison countered to keep the hosts at bay. The Big Red recorded the final four points of the set, which included a kill by Perry to close it out.
Denison's momentum from the set one win spilled over into the second set. The Big Red tallied the first five points of the set, using kills by
Cailey Johns and
Ayla Dunbar coupled with a service ace by
Whitley Metz to take the early advantage. The lead eventually swelled to 12-1 on a kill by
Claire Hamilton, which forced Kenyon to take both of its timeouts for the second set. The lead reached 18-6 with back-to-back kills from Hamilton and
Katy McCaffrey. Denison maintained a double-digit lead for the remainder of the second set before taking it by a 25-9 score. The Big Red maintained its sound offensive approach by hitting .250 in the second set with 12 kills.
The Big Red jumped out to an early lead once again in the third set. Consecutive kills by Dunbar followed by a kill by
Alice Kempf made it 5-1 early. Kenyon hung around and pulled within two points twice (13-11 and 14-12) before Denison pushed the lead back to four, which forced a timeout by the home team. Another Denison spurt pushed the lead to 21-13 following consecutive kills by Dunbar. The Big Red finished things out in style with the final four points to win by a 25-15 margin for the sweep. Perry had a pair of kills before a
Sadie Habeeb ace ended the match. Denison put together a match-best .382 hitting percentage with 18 kills in the final set.
Dunbar led all players with 14 kills with a .345 hitting percentage. Perry continued her strong play with 11 kills and a .429 hitting percentage.
Kempf finished with 34 assists in the victory. Defensively, Habeeb led all players with 20 digs.
Ryan Kotalik totaled 11 digs. Metz finished with a game-high three service aces.
Denison held advantages in kills (44-19), digs (55-40) and aces (6-1).
Up Next: Denison will look to close out the NCAC regular season slate unbeaten on Saturday, Nov. 2 when they head to Springfield, Ohio to face Wittenberg University in conference play. The match will start at 1 p.m.
