RICHMOND, Ind. – The Earlham College volleyball team swept Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in the final home match of the 2023 season on Wednesday evening. 

The Quakers improved to 9-17 (3-5 HCAC) while the Engineers fell to 13-13 (3-5 HCAC).

Caylee Brandes led the offense with 13 kills and only two errors for a .458 hitting percentage on the night. Aniyah Harrington scored nine kills in the rotation, and Maria Young scored eight kills with a .467 attack percentage. 

Ava Walters dished out 28 assists, and hit two service aces. Madison Bizjak collected 12 digs as libero. 

As a team, the Quakers scored 42 kills with only 11 errors for a .330 attack percentage, while holding Rose-Hulman to a .084 clip. 

The Quakers jumped out to a 4-0 lead to begin the match, and pulled a 13-5 lead later in the first set. After a three-point run by the Engineers, Earlham scored eight straight points to end the set. The Quaker defense forced five attack errors in the run, and Walters hit two aces. 

After Rose-Hulman took a 7-5 lead in set two, EC had a 7-2 run and led 12-9. The Engineers then scored nine straight to lead 18-12 with five kills and two aces in the run. The Quakers rebounded and scored a 13-4 run for the remainder of the frame. Brandes scored five kills in the run.

With the third set tied 2-2, Earlham scored eight straight to lead 10-2. Later in the frame, an eight-point run gave the home squad a 21-5 lead in the deciding set. Not ready to go home yet, the Engineers capitalized on errors to score a 14-2 run. Harrington scored a kill to put Earlham on match point, and the Quakers won on an attack error. 

ECVB closes out the regular season on Saturday at Franklin College at 7:30 pm. Earlham (3-5) is locked in a battle with Anderson (4-4), Rose-Hulman (3-5) and Franklin (2-6) for the final two spots in the HCAC Tournament. A win on Saturday would put Earlham into the top-six with the tiebreaker over Rose-Hulman for the standings.