University Heights, Ohio – The Oberlin College volleyball team dropped a back and forth five-set match at John Carroll on Tuesday night (14-25, 25-20, 25-23, 19-25, 11-15).
The loss drops the Yeowomen to the .500 mark at 4-4 while the Blue Streaks improved to 7-2.
John Carroll got out to an early 6-2 lead in the first set. An Emery Beacom kill cut the deficit to two at 12-10. The Blue Streaks rattled off seven of the next eight points to take a 19-11 lead. Consecutive kills by Iyanna Lewis trimmed the deficit to six at 20-14 but John Carroll went on a 5-0 run to take the first set 25-14.
In the second set, a pair of kills by Maura Gibbs and Jaya Flynn-Young gave Oberlin a 10-5 advantage. A pair of Beacom kills held the lead at five (15-10) but John Carroll won six straight points to take a one-point lead. With the Blue Streaks holding on to a slim 19-18 advantage, the Yeowomen captured five straight points to regain the lead at 23-19 before a Beacom kill closed out the set for Oberlin 25-20.
In the third set with the score tied at 11-11, John Carroll went on a 9-2 run to take a 20-13 lead. A kill by Lauren Fitts stopped the Blue Streak run and sparked a 7-0 stretch by the Yeowomen to knot the score at 20-20. Late in the set, Oberlin trailed by one at 23-22 but three consecutive kills by Beacom and Natasha Radic earned the Yeowomen a comeback third set victory to take a 2-1 match lead.
The home team responded by taking an early 9-4 lead in the fourth set but three straight Oberlin kills cut the deficit to two. The Blue Streaks answered by taking a 15-8 lead but the Yeowomen again got back within two at 16-14. That was as close as they would get in the set as the teams traded mini-runs for the remainder of the set on the way to John Carroll taking the fourth set by a 25-19 score.
This time Oberlin responded by jumping out to an early 4-0 advantage in the deciding fifth set but John Carroll fought back to take nine of the next 12 points and take the lead at 9-7. Lewis sandwiched a pair of kills between a Gibbs service ace to retake the lead for the Yeowomen 10-9. Unfortunately, the Blue Streaks rattled off six of the final seven points to take the set 15-11 and win the match.
Beacom paced Oberlin with 14 kills while Gibbs added 11 to go along with 16 digs. Samantha Lam registered 11 digs while notching 24 assists.
The Yeowomen return to the court this weekend in Wooster for the Ginny Hunt Kilt Classic with a pair of matches against Bluffton and Colby on Saturday, September 14th starting at 1:00 p.m.
