Owls start fast, but fade in loss to Big Red

Denison Den 10-14,4-3 NCAC

Kenyon Kenyon 7-19,0-7 NCAC

Denison Den

10-14,4-3 NCAC

Final

Oct. 30, 2026

Kenyon Kenyon

7-19,0-7 NCAC

Set Scores
Team	1	2	3	F
Denison Den	25	25	25	(3)
Kenyon Kenyon	22	11	19	(0)

Summary
Box Score

David Carley

Game Recap: Volleyball | 10/30/2026 9:30:00 PM

Owls start fast, but fade in loss to Big Red

GAMBIER, Ohio -- Playing in the final home match of their 2026 volleyball season, the Kenyon College Owls came out strong Friday night, but wound up running into a couple of bumps in the road that threw them off track in a 3-0 loss against the visiting Denison University Big Red.

Trailing 7-6 early in the first set, Kenyon turned to Naomi Polanski, who served up four straight points, giving the Owls a 10-7 lead. Olivia Gumz and Sophia Menke had kills in the brief Kenyon run.

Gumz and Menke kept things going for Kenyon throughout the set, as both contributed three kills, guiding the Owls to a 15-11 lead and, later, leads of 21-19 and 22-21. Denison, however, used timeouts to stem the tide and caught Kenyon at 22-22. From there, two Kenyon errors and two kills from Denison's Claire Hamilton gave the Big Red a 25-22 set win.

Hamilton, who had nine kills in that first set, went on to lead all players with 15 kills throughout the match.

Early in the second set, the wind was knocked out of the Owls, as senior setter Hannah Schwemm walked off the court with an apparent knee injury.

Schwemm, the heart and soul of the Kenyon club, entered the match leading the Owls in assists and aces. She also carried with her career numbers that included 80 matches played, 171 kills, 1712 assists, 717 digs and 75 service aces.

The loss was apparent, as Denison took advantage of Schwemm's absence and rolled to leads of 16-7 and 21-9 before putting the second set away, 25-11.

First-year Addie Gehres did an admirable job of taking over for Schwemm and, once she settled in, helped make the third set much more competitive. In all, Gehres chalked up a team-high 12 assists to go along with five digs.

Denison (10-14, 4-3 NCAC) raced out to an 8-3 advantage in that third set, but Kenyon chipped away pulling within three, at 11-8 and, later, at 15-12. An ace from Makena Rodriguez and a kill from Elaina Mardula got the Owls within one point, but Denison responded with four straight points and six of the next eight to take the set, 25-19, and claim the North Coast Athletic Conference victory.

Gumz wound up with a team-high eight kills for Kenyon, while Menke had six kills and a pair of blocks. Senior Arianna Flota tallied 13 digs, giving her 247 on the season.

Kenyon (7-19, 0-7 NCAC) has just one match left on its schedule. That non-conference contest will be at Ohio Northern University next Friday, November 6 at 7 p.m.

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