Oberlin, Ohio - The Oberlin College volleyball team dropped a four-set affair to the visiting Case Western Reserve University Spartans on Wednesday night at Philips Gym. Case took the opening set 25-20 before Oberlin evened the match with a 25-21 win in set two. However, the Spartans took control from there by downing the Yeowomen 25-17 and 25-11 in the final two frames. 

Oberlin used a diverse attack to hang with the high-powered Spartans as four different players finished with five or more kills. First-year Josie Macdonald led the charge with eight finishes, while Cami Sweet and Iyanna Lewis added seven each. Natalie Dufour also chipped in five send-downs in the loss. 

Sweet dominated at the net with six solo blocks, while Jillian Jendsen and Lindsey Felton aided the cause with two aces each. 

Lucy Myers distributed 29 assists to go along with seven digs while Zeynep Kaya and Jendsen led the back row effort with 15 and 12 digs, respectively. 

It was nip-and-tuck early on in the opening set as the score was tied at 10-10. After a Spartans error later trimmed their advantage to 18-16, they quickly regrouped by winning five of the next six points in the stanza en route to the five-point victory. 

Case Western opened the second set on a 6-1 run to force an Oberlin timeout but the Yeowomen wouldn't go away without a fight, rallying to tie the match at 7-7 before grabbing a 10-8 lead on back-to-back kills from Lauren Sands and Macdonald. The lead would only swell from there as Oberlin built up a 21-12 cushion before fending off a late comeback bid from the Spartans. 

The third set was tied at 13-13 but a 5-0 spurt by the Spartans gave them control as Oberlin was never able to get back into it, and in the fourth Case opened up a 14-4 lead and never looked back to secure its 14th win of the year. 

Oberlin hit .089 for the match 38 kills against 26 errors on 135 swings. The Spartans had a .256 success rate with 51 kills with just 18 errors on 129 attempts. Both teams finished with six aces and seven blocks. 

The Yeowomen return to conference play on Saturday with a 1 p.m. clash at Wittenberg.