Dimondale, Michigan – The Oberlin College volleyball team evened the match at a set a piece before dropping the next two to lose to Olivet College 3-1 on Friday afternoon. The Yeowomen fell 12-25, 25-23, 13-25, 21-25.
Oberlin started off slow in the opening set, falling behind 6-0. A
Natasha Radic kill broke the drought but Olivet still held a comfortable seven-point margin at 11-4. The Comets recorded back-to-back kills to push the lead to 10 at 14-4. With Olivet leading 17-6, Oberlin traded points with their opponent which found them down 20-10 as the end of the set drew closer. A couple of errors by the Yeowomen expanded the Comet lead to 13 before an Olivet error and
McLean Sammon ace cut the deficit back under double-digits at 23-12. Olivet ended up closing out the set with a pair of kills to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The second set was a different story as it was back-and-forth in the early going before an
Iyanna Lewis kill gave the Yeowomen a slight lead at 9-7. A trio of errors by Olivet extended the Oberlin advantage to 12-8 but the Comets responded with three consecutive points to cut the deficit to one at 12-11. Olivet continued to hurt themselves as a stretch of errors pushed the Oberlin lead to five at 16-11. A pair of Comet kills along with a Yeowomen error pulled Olivet within striking distance at 19-17 but Oberlin answered with a pair of kills from Lewis and Radic. Two Olivet kills was quickly negated by two more errors to put Oberlin up 23-19 and inch closer to tying up the match. The Comets made one more run to tie the score at 23-23 but errors plagued Olivet throughout the set and two more gave the Yeowomen a 25-23 set victory.
The third set was another tight one early on with a
Jaya Flynn-Young kill breaking the tie at 8-7. Olivet answered by taking 10 of the next 11 points to open up a 17-9 lead. A Radic kill stopped the run but a pair of service aces ballooned the lead to double-digits at 21-11.
Samantha Lam set up Sammon for a kill to stop the bleeding but the Comets won four of the last five points to win the third set 25-13 and take a 2-1 match lead.
The Comets got out to an 4-1 lead in the fourth set but a pair of Radic kills kept things close at 9-7. Four straight Comet kills extended the lead to six at 13-7 before a service error halted their run with the score sitting at 14-8. Another Olivet error and a pair of Yeowomen kills cut the deficit in half at 14-11. Unfortunately, an Oberlin service error combined with a pair of kills put the Olivet lead back to six at 17-11. Kills by
Zoe Kuzbari and
Emery Beacom were followed up by a
Maura Gibbs ace to bring the Yeowomen all the way to within one at 19-18. After a Comet attack error kept the Yeowomen within one at 21-20, Olivet won four of the last five points to close out the set 25-21 and take the match three sets to one.
Radic and Beacom paced Oberlin in kills with 11 and nine respectively while Lam recorded 23 assists. On the defensive end, Kuzbari bested Gibbs in digs by one with 16 for the match.
The Yeowomen play two more matches in the MIAA/NCAC Challenge tomorrow starting at 12:00 p.m. against St. Mary's College (IN) and wrapping up with a 2:00 p.m. tilt versus Kalamazoo.
