Springfield, Ohio – The Oberlin College volleyball team fell in straight sets to Kenyon College in the opening round of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament hosted by Wittenberg University.
 
Oberlin finishes the year with an overall record of 12-14 and a conference record of 1-7. Kenyon improves to 14-10 on the year and advances to NCAC semifinals where they will face No. 1 ranked Wittenberg at 11 a.m.
 
The Yeowomen would fell by score of 17-25, 16-25 and 18-25.
 
The Oberlin offensive attack was spearheaded by sophomore Lexi Mitchell who had a team-high nine kills and just two errors for a hitting percentage of .226. Sara Chang and Samantha Lam orchestrated the offense as they each tallied 10 assists.
 
Along the back, defensive specialist Emily Kelkar finished with 17 digs while Mitchell registered 13 on the day.  
 
In the first set, the Yeowomen jumped out to 5-1 lead off a kill by senior Dana Thomas. However, the Ladies answered with a 7-2 run that would give them the lead for good.
 
Kenyon took the momentum from the opening-set victory into the second as they jumped out to an early 5-1 lead. Oberlin battled back to cut the Kenyon cushion to 10-8 when Chang registered a kill off a feed from Eliza Braverman. Another long run by Kenyon would extend its advantage to 17-11 forcing the Yeowomen to take a timeout, but they were unable to comeback following the stoppage.
 
Another strong start for the Ladies in game three gave them a 4-0 lead, but a 5-1 surge by the Yeowomen that was capped off with a kill by Thomas evened the score at 5-5. The  set was later tied at 11-11 and 14-14, and the Yeowomen would grab their only lead of the stanza off a service ace from Claudia Scott to make the score 15-14.  Kenyon went back out in front two points later and would close out the match with an 11-3 run.
 
Oberlin will bid farewell its three seniors in Lola Gatti, Scott and Thomas and will begin preparing for its 2018 season in the non-traditional spring season.