GAMBIER, Ohio -- Celebrating the careers of eight seniors, the Kenyon College volleyball team punctuated Saturday's competition with a 3-1 conference win against the Oberlin College Yeowomen. With contributions from a handful of those seniors, the Owls posted a final score of 25-12, 20-25, 25-20, 25-16.
    
Kenyon wasted little time in taking control at Tomsich Arena, as it raced off to leads of 6-2 and 11-5 in the first set. That initial run was fueled by a couple of blocks, including one from Rebecca Gwynne, who also rang up an ace. On the other side, the Oberlin offense couldn't get going. The Yeowomen had five attack errors in the first 15 points of the match.

Macy Reimbold, a senior, registered Kenyon's first kill to make it 14-6. She went on to swat two more kills, as did Paige Milhon, another senior, and the Owls cruised to a lopsided set-one win.

Set two was not so one-sided. After an early Kenyon lead, Oberlin got kills from Cami Sweet and Lauren Sands to build an 11-8 advantage. The Owls eventually caught up and tied the score on four different occasions, but Oberlin rang up five kills over the next eight points en route to the five-point win in the set.

The momentum quickly shifted in the third set when Kenyon rolled to an early 7-1 lead on the strength of back-to-back kills from senior Eras Yager. Oberlin, however, caught and surpassed the Owls, taking a 12-10 lead. It was a short-lived lead, though. Kenyon charged right back to take control with kills from Reimbold and Yager, followed by an ace from senior Jac Cousineau. From there, Oberlin never got closer than two, as Kenyon moved one set away from victory.

In the fourth set, Oberlin took a 1-0 lead, but never led again. The Yeowomen twice tied the set, but the Owls never relinquished control. The home team, which led by as many as five at three different points, capped off the day with five straight points to pull away and seal the deal. In that deciding set, Milhon had four kills and Gwynne had three.

Overall, Milhon led the Kenyon squad with 13 kills. She also had four blocks. Gwynne ended up with seven kills and seven blocks, while Reimbold chalked up 10 kills and a team-high 23 digs.

Both Cousineau and Maggie Wolf had 15 assists. First-year Joy Carstanjen tacked on 17 digs and two aces for Kenyon, which improved to 4-17 overall and 2-4 in North Coast Athletic Conference play.

In addition to Cousineau, Reimbold, Milhon and Yager, the team's senior class is represented by Ellie Luciani, Maya Sapsford, Lizzie Sunding and D.J. Taylor.