RICHMOND – The Earlham College volleyball team defeated DePauw University after a five-set battle in Druley Performance Gym on Wednesday evening. 

The Quakers improved to 6-7 on the season. 

Maria Young and Aniyah Harrington paced the Earlham offense with 16 and 15 kills. Young also led the Quakers in attack efficiency with a .226 hitting percentage. 

Erin Wagner, who recently passed 2,000 career assists, posted 43 assists off of 49 total kills for the Quakers. Wagner also hit five aces on the evening. Quaker libero Jen Shamel led the team in digs with 28. 

Earlham had a solid showing in the first set, but was unable to match the offensive efficiency of DePauw, as the Tigers recorded 12 kills and just three errors in the first frame. 

The Quakers returned with an identical kill/error split in set two, but saw the DePauw offense come back down after its strong start. Earlham had a 17-11 lead in the set before a 7-0 gave the visitors the lead and momentum which carried into the extra points. 

Earlham recorded the only negative hitting percentage of the night in the third set after hitting 10 attack errors. WHile the Quakers were leading 10-7, DePauw scored a 10-1 run to take off with the set lead. 

After trailing 10-7 in the fourth set, the Quakers took over with their best set of the evening. Earlham started with an 8-2 run, and followed it up with a 7-2 run for the offensive victory. 

Earlham jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the deciding set before the Tigers fought back. With a score of 7-7, the Quakers capitalized on a bad set to swap courts with the lead. The set began a three-point run for Earlham before DePauw tied the score at 10. Aided by the growing energy in Druley Performance Gym, EC outscored the Tigers 5-1 to take the match win. 

Earlham will be back in action at home on Saturday against Asbury University at 1 pm.