Owls close conference slate with loss at OWU

DELAWARE, Ohio — Making the short trip west to take on conference foe Ohio Wesleyan University, the Kenyon College volleyball team couldn’t get its attack going and suffered a 3-0 defeat to the host Battling Bishops on Tuesday night.

The loss put Kenyon at 4-18 to go along with a conference record of 2-5. Depending on what The College of Wooster does tomorrow night, the Owls will either be the No. 6 or No. 7 seed going into next weekend’s North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament.

Ohio Wesleyan, which will be the No. 3 seed in the NCAC Tournament, improved its overall record to 11-13 and its conference record to 5-2.

The Battling Bishops just didn’t give the Owls any room Tuesday. They racked up 49 kills and a .362 attack percentage, while on the other side of the net, Kenyon managed 17 kills and .047 attack percentage. 

Kenyon’s leader on the attack was first-year Rebecca Gwynne, who had five kills. Senior Paige Milhon and junior Lindsey Abramson each had four. Milhon also had three blocks, bringing her team- and conference-leading season total to 85. In her three seasons of play, Milhon now has 224 career blocks, a total that ranks eighth-best in program history.

Kenyon’s other stat leaders included Elizabeth Sonza, who had 11 digs, as well as Jac Cousineau and Maggie Wolf, who served up seven assists apiece.

The Owls were stunned from the start. The Battling Bishops opened the match with nine straight points. The lead grew to as many as 16 as Ohio Wesleyan raced ahead 20-4 before closing out the first set, 25-14.

Kills from Gywnne, Milhon and Eras Yager got Kenyon off to a better start in the second set, but the Battling Bishops responded with a 9-1 run that saw Melissa Murray throw down three kills and Claire Solberg add two. Murray had two more kills in the set and steered Ohio Wesleyan to a 25-12 win.

The third and final set was similar to the first, as Ohio Wesleyan bolted to 7-0 and 10-1 leads. Kenyon pushed back with a kill from Gwynne and an ace from Cousineau, but the Owls never got closer than five points the rest of the way and fell 25-14.

Murray and Solberg finished with 12 and 10 kills, respectively, for Ohio Wesleyan, but it was their teammate Eliza Richardson who led all players with 14.