HIRAM, Ohio – Junior Delaney Swanson is heating up at the right time for the Kenyon College volleyball team. The outside hitter piled up 19 kills Saturday and helped the Ladies chalk up a 3-1 road win at Hiram College. After splitting the first two sets with the host Terriers, the Ladies squeaked out wins in the final two sets and registered a 25-18, 18-25, 25-22, 26-24 triumph.

The victory was the second-straight in North Coast Athletic Conference action for the Ladies, who are now 14-9 overall and 4-3 in the conference standings. The victory also allowed the Ladies to stay ahead of Hiram, which slipped to 15-9 overall and 3-5 in conference competition.

Swanson's 19 kills were a team-high against the Terriers. She also contributed a dozen digs and three blocks. Over the team's last two matches, Swanson has 34 kills, a .321 attack percentage, 29 digs and five blocks.

Following Swanson's lead, sophomore Mackenzie Bruzzio threw down 12 kills and tacked on three blocks and three kills. Senior setter Jensen Shurbert posted 45 assists and 11 digs. Freshman Carly Uhlir led the defense with 15 digs. Ashley Martens had 13 digs and three aces, while Rachael Thorson chipped in with another 12 digs for a busy Kenyon back row.

Kenyon claimed the first set with a late run. Trailing 18-16, the Ladies rattled off a 9-0 burst to close out the set. That run was fueled by three kills from sophomore Maleah Miller and two each from Swanson and Bruzzio. A couple of attack errors from the Terriers also aided the Kenyon cause.

The Ladies' other two set wins also came down to the wire. In the third, the teams were knotted at 19-19. A Schuyler Stupica kill gave Kenyon a one-point advantage and a Hiram error pushed the lead to two. From that point, the teams traded points until Swanson smashed two more kills for Kenyon, which scored the final point on a Hiram service error.

In the fourth and final set, the score ended up tied on 13 different occasions. Hiram moved ahead by as many as three points, three different times, while Kenyon only held early leads of 2-0 and 3-2. The Ladies didn't lead again until a Hiram attack error gave Kenyon a 20-19 advantage. Shurbert added an ace and the Ladies took a 21-19 lead into a Hiram timeout.

When the teams returned to the court, the Terriers scored five of the next seven points to pull ahead 24-23. Kenyon then called a timeout and capitalized on two Hiram errors. Trailing 25-24, the Terriers used their final timeout, but Kenyon junior Alexi Donnelly greeted them back to action with the match-winning kill.

The Ladies have just one regular-season match left, a Wednesday night battle at home against the No. 1-ranked Wittenberg University Tigers. The conference postseason tournament follows, beginning with opening-round matches November 3.