RICHMOND – The Earlham College volleyball team narrowly missed out on a fifth-set comeback in Druley Performance Gym against the Big Red of Denison University on Tuesday evening. The Quakers took wins in sets one and three to fall 3-2 in the contest.
Earlham fell to 4-5 on the season while Denison improved to 3-5.
Junior hitter
Maria Young lit up the court with 24 kills and a .209 hitting percentage. Young peppered the Big Red with a game-high 67 offensive attempts and only drew 10 errors.
Jasmyn Meeker had a productive evening with 13 kills on 42 attempts, and
Liv Kyrk posted an efficient .280 percentage with 10 kills.
Erin Wagner dished out 43 assists, which accounted for over 75% of kills for the Quakers.
Akiko Tajima served as libero and matched Wagner for the team lead in digs with 24.
Jen Shamel and Young recorded 18 and 16 digs respectively.
The Quakers took set one by staying clean and forcing mistakes from the Big Red. Earlham hit 14 kills as a team in the set compared to just seven from Denison, who also had eight errors.
Denison returned with a renewed offense in set two, and scored a 7-1 run early on to set the tone. Denison hit 12 kills in the second frame with just two errors, while Earlham recorded 15 kills with 10 errors.
As the teams switched sides on the court once more, so too did the performances as Denison hit a measly .027 in set three while Earlham ballooned to .225. The home squad strung together an 11-3 run to conclude the set.
The offensive output shifted again in set four with Earlham finding struggles. The Quakers failed to register double-digit kills for the first time on the evening and saw eight errors on offense, while Denison saw its highest kill total and hit percentage of the night.
Despite falling behind early in the deciding set, Earlham recovered and mounted a rally while down 13-5. The Quakers played stout defense and recorded two blocks during a 5-1 run.
Earlham will be back in action on Friday at the ONU Invitational hosted by Ohio Northern University. At the tournament, the Quakers will take on Ohio Athletic Conference competition in ONU, Muskingum, and Heidelberg.
