GROVE CITY, Pa. — The Denison women's volleyball team split its final two matches of the week on Saturday, taking a morning victory in four sets against Penn State-Behrend 3-1, but in the weekend finale, the Big Red fell to Mount Union 3-1, dropping sets two through four. Denison ends the weekend with a 4-8 overall record on the season.
MATCH 1 | Denison 3-1 PSU-Behrend
The Big Red recovered from an early 4-2 deficit in the opening set, using a block by
Maeve Perry and
Carolina Parkhurst to spark life into the team in the early morning match. The block churned the score to a 7-5 lead, which eventually swelled to four at a 12-8 count. Penn St.-Behrend came back to tie things up at 12-12, setting up a back-and-forth pace as the set tightened. Denison tied things up at 16-16 on Parkhurst's kill and later went up 20-18 on consecutive kills from
Maeve Perry and
Ayla Dunbar. The Lions answered again and pushed in front 22-21, reaching set point at 24-23. Denison showed fight despite facing the set point, as
Claire Hamilton tied the set, and immediately after,
Kate Sicklick scored an ace to give her team set point. Denison then scored set point to win 26-24, getting a rare kill from
Ryan Kotalik to take a 1-0 lead.
The Lions would roar back and win the second set 25-17, taking a back-and-forth start into their own hands as a 4-0 run put the Pennsylvania squad in front 10-8. Another surge of 8-3 in favor of Penn State Behrend pushed the visitors on the board in the right trend to win, and despite a service ace from
Amelia Kurtz that cut the margin to four at 21-17, Denison would yield the final four points in the second set loss.
Knotted 1-1, Denison pulled out all the stops to win the third set and take a 2-1 match lead, as the Big Red would win a wild game 32-30. The Big Red moved ahead 5-2 to start the set with an
Emily Monachino ace fueling the start, but the Lions would rally, eventually taking a 16-12 lead. Trailing by four,
Carolina Parkhurst put down consecutive kills to spark a 5-1 run, as
Sarah McShane eventually tied things at 17. Denison battled to reach set point behind a Hamilton kill and block, but the 24-23 score was not able to end the match, as the Lions staved off consecutive set points, eventually going on top 26-25. Denison would then have to fend off four set points, and trailing 30-29, a kill from Hamilton sparked the winning sprint for the Big Red. Tied 30-30, a Lion error gave Denison set point, and Carolina Parkhurt then put the set away with a kill at 32-30.
In the fourth set, Penn St.-Behrend scored the first two points to lead early, but Dension quickly settled in, as
Claire Hamilton spiked a kill that started a 6-0 run to set an 8-3 edge. Denison never looked back after the run, and despite pressure from the Lions that saw the lead shrink to one, the Big Red withstood the heat, getting a side out on a Monachino kill to spark a match-deciding 5-0 run. After scoring the 19-13 lead, Denison traded a series of six points with Penn State, as their final point was the match-clinching point.
Maeve Perry logged a block solo on the final rally, winning the set 25-19 and the match 3-1.
Hamilton led the Big Red with 17 kills, logging a season-high hitting percentage of .429, and
Ayla Dunbar finished with 12 kills. Monachino did a little bit of everything with a team-high 25 assists, while also posting four service aces, six digs and five kills. Parkhurst added eight kills on 12 attacks with no errors and three block assists, and Perry had six kills and three total blocks.
Sarah McShane collected a team-high 14 digs and tallied three service aces, and
Whitley Metz matched
Ryan Kotalik with 13 digs each.
MATCH 2 | Denison 1-3 Mount Union
In the first set, Denison opened with four straight service points, setting a competitive tone and securing a 25-20 victory.
Ayla Dunbar and
Claire Hamilton stood out with their early contributions, helping Denison take the lead. Mount Union's rallied late in the set, but the threat was thwarted by Denison's strong defense and timely kills from Hamilton and
Emily Monachino.
The second set was closely contested, with Denison showing resilience but ultimately falling 23-25. The Big Red trailed 20-21 late in the set, but a 3-0 run pushed the Purple Raiders to a win. Mount Union used the momentum of the win to emphatically take the third set, running away with the set after going on a 9-1 run to take a 20-12 lead. Denison fell behind in the match 2-1 after Mount Union won 25-15 in the third set.
In the fourth set, Denison made a push, trimming a five-point Mount Union advantage to two at 18-16.
Maeve Perry and
Zoe Johnson aided the comeback efforts with kills in the late 3-0 spurt, but despite these efforts, Mount Union maintained control, closing out the match with a 25-16 win. Throughout the match, Mount Union's efficiency was evident with 12 attack errors and 21 total blocks, compared to Denison's 35 attack errors.
The Big Red still produced 49 kills to Mount Union's 47 and held edges in service aces, 8-6, and digs, 63-61.
Ayla Dunbar finished with 11 kills,
Claire Hamilton added 10, and
Kate Sicklick contributed eight kills on a .357 hitting percentage with two aces.
Ryan Kotalik had four of the Big Red's eight aces, and
Sarah McShane anchored the back row with 23 digs.
Emily Monachino finished with a team-high 24 assists, six kills, and nine digs in the loss, and
Amelia Kurtz had 20 assists and one service ace.
Up Next: With the busy weekend in the books, Denison will return home for its next match, taking on Muskingum in the Livingston Gymnasium on Wednesday, September 23. The match begins at 7:00 p.m.
