GAMBIER, Ohio – A strong DePauw University volleyball team got all it could handle from the Kenyon College Ladies on Saturday afternoon in Tomsich Arena. Riding a four-match win streak and possessing only one conference loss this season, the visiting Tigers had to scratch and claw to pull out a 28-26, 27-29, 26-24, 25-18 road win over the Ladies.

Kenyon showed its mettle from the start. When DePauw broke open a close battle and took a 22-16 lead in the first set, the Ladies roared back with five straight points on kills from Tierney McClure and Katie Goulder, as well as a couple of aces from Delaney Swanson. DePauw temporarily stopped the bleeding with a point off a Kenyon service error, but the Ladies stormed right back with three more points to take a 24-23 lead. Things went back and forth from there before DePauw closed things out with kills from Faith Rolwes and Suzanne Peters.

Set two was more of the same, as neither team could pull away by more than four points. Late in the set, Kenyon moved ahead 24-22 on a Schuyler Stupica kill, but Peters came back with two more for the Tigers. Again, the two teams scrapped for that deciding two-point advantage and it finally came for Kenyon when Lauren Kerr smacked a kill and DePauw committed an attack error in its own end.

For the third time in as many sets, Kenyon built a 24-23 lead. DePauw (14-5, 4-1 NCAC) ended up stealing the third set, however, as Elisabeth Wilson notched a kill and then teamed up with Nicole Burge to come with a set-deciding block.

DePauw carried that momentum into the fourth set and left the Ladies behind. A 7-2 run midway through the set gave the Tigers all the cushion they would need.

Kenyon (9-10, 0-5 NCAC) was led by a season-high 18 kills from McClure, while Swanson added 14 and Goulder celebrated senior day with seven more kills for the Ladies. McClure also posted a team-high 20 digs and Swanson contributed 19. Kenyon also received 40 assists and 13 digs from Jensen Shurbert.

Wilson and Peters led the Tigers with 13 kills apiece.

The road ahead doesn't get any easier for the Ladies, who next play host to the nationally-ranked Wittenberg University Tigers on Thursday at 7 p.m.