SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – The Kenyon College volleyball team's impressive run through the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament came to end an end Saturday. After pulling off upsets in Friday's first two rounds, the Ladies fell to Denison University, 25-17, 26-24, 25-21 in Saturday's seminal.

Kenyon entered the eight-team tournament as the No. 7 seed. Friday, the Ladies upended No. 6-seeded College of the Wooster and then shocked No. 3-seeded Ohio Wesleyan. That set the stage for a semifinal match with Denison, the tournament's No. 2 seed.

The Big Red, who earned byes through the first two rounds of the tournament, looked fresh and ready for Kenyon's attack. Kenyon did build an early 5-4 lead to start the day, but Denison charged back with nine straight points. The Big Red got three kills from Alex Tubbs, but also benefitted from five Kenyon errors during that run. The Ladies recovered, but never drew closer than four points for the remainder of the set.

Set two was a different story. It featured just three lead changes, but ten different occasions in which the score was tied. The Ladies trailed for most of the set, but never by more than three points. Late in the set, the Ladies tied things up at 20, 21 and 22. Mackenzie Bruzzio then tallied an ace that gave the Ladies a 23-22 advantage. Denison came back with a kill and an ace to move ahead 24-23. A Big Red service error followed and the teams were square again at 24. Denison then made it to the finish line first with a kill and an ace from Sidney Gossard.

Kenyon kept after it in the third set, building an 8-3 lead on the strength of kills from Haley Witschey, Maleah Miller and Bruzzio. Denison, however, had another long run to retake the lead. The Big Red went on a 9-1 tear, fueled by three kills from Gossard, to move ahead 11-9. Later, a couple of aces from Kenyon's Jac Cousineau pulled the Ladies within one point, at 18-17. The Big Red did not allow the Ladies to get any closer the rest of the way. They out-scored Kenyon 7-4 and finished things off with two kills from Tubbs.

Tubbs finished with nine kills for Denison, Gossard tallied eight, and Lucy Anderson posted a match-high 13 kills.

Bruzzio, as she has all season long, led the Ladies in kills. She had eight against the Big Red, bringing her season total to 295 and her career total to 1,043, which ranks as the sixth-best, all-time total in program history.

Katie Howard rang up a team-high 16 digs, giving her 361 for the season. Bruzzio added 15 more digs, giving her 328 on the year. Cousineau ended up with nine digs, eight assists and three service aces. Fellow freshman, Maya Sapsford turned in a team-best 14 assists.

The loss ended Kenyon's 2019 season with a 9-20 overall record. Denison, which improved to 18-7, moved on to face DePauw University in the tournament final.