DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Kenyon volleyball team wrapped up its regular season with a win against Rose-Hulman Institute and loss to Defiance College on Saturday in two non-conference matches. Kenyon moved its record to 15-11 by day's end.
 
MATCH ONE
 
Haley Witschey recorded 14 kills while hitting a blistering .565 to help lead Kenyon to a 3-0 win. Junior Mackenzie Bruzzio added a double-double with 13 kills and 16 digs while Meghan Cason handed out 36 assists.
 
Defensively, Kenyon did well, holding the Fightin' Engineers to a .134 attack percentage.
 
First-set action was extremely tight as there were 13 ties. The last, at 22-22, came after Elyse Davidson chalked up a kill. Kenyon then followed with three more points, including another kill from Davidson, to win 25-22.
 
In the second, leading 6-5, the Ladies hit a 10-1 run to take control. Bruzzio and Maleah Miller each had multiple kills during the stretch which moved Kenyon ahead 16-6. Kenyon's defense was able to hold Rose-Hulman to its lowest set total of the day as well, connecting on .083 of its attacks.
 
Kenyon wrapped up the match in the third. Witschey dialed up four kills while Bruzzio contributed three as the Ladies won 25-23. The Ladies trailed by two, 23-21, after a Marissa Gollnick kill. However, the team fought back with four straight points and won the set on a block assist from Bruzzio and Miller.
 
MATCH TWO
 
Against the host school Defiance, the Ladies got off on the right foot before falling in the second through fourth sets.
 
Bruzzio added another double-double with 15 kills and a season-high 21 digs while Katie Howard added 18 digs and two service aces. Cason also added 36 assists for the second-straight match.
 
In the first, the two teams went back and forth before a 4-0 run by the Ladies pushed their lead to 14-9. The Yellow Jackets could only pull as close as three points the rest of the way as Kenyon closed the set with four straight including two aces from Howard.
 
Defiance was able to tie the match in the second. Kenyon got out to a 12-7 lead after an ace from Bruzzio but just couldn't keep the Yellow Jackets down. Defiance later knotted the set at 19 after a kill from Brooke Plummer. Defiance then scored six of the next eight points to win 25-21.
 
The third set was extremely close. In fact, a kill from Lauren Limbach tied the set at 20 before the home team pulled away. Defiance finished the stanza with a 5-1 run which included three kills from Cassidy Posey.
 
In the deciding fourth set, three different Defiance players had three kills as it won 25-17. The run to put the match away came when the scoreboard read 14-13, Yellow Jackets. What followed was an 8-0 stretch and it secured a nine-point lead for Defiance in that stretch.
 
Next on the schedule for the Ladies is a North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament match on November 2 at Wittenberg University. Kenyon will face either Ohio Wesleyan University or Oberlin College at 7 p.m.