DC Volleyball Downs Earlham (Ind.)

RICHMOND, IND.  --  The Defiance College volleyball team defeated Earlham (Ind.) College in straight sets, 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-18) in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference match in Richmond, Ind.

Sophomore Meredith Shank (Maumee/Springfield) led Defiance offensively with a match-high nine kills, followed by junior Hope Neargarder (Union City/Mississinawa Valley) with six kills and freshman Marissa Windau (Castalia/Margaretta) added five kills.  Junior Ari Mahaffey (Porter, Ind./Chesterton) tallied a match-high 24 set assists and also had two service aces.  Junior Makayla Dennis (Bryan) led all players in aces with four, followed by senior Rebecca Kain (Orland, Ind./Prairie Heights) with three.  Windau and Shank also added a pair of aces to round out the offensive leaders.

Defensively, Kain had a match-high 14 digs.  Mahaffey was second with nine digs and sophomore Jaidyn Patridge (Toledo/Springfield) had five digs.  At the net, the duo of Windau and Mahaffey led the way with three assisted blocks each.  

Earlham (5-21, 0-8 HCAC) began the first set on a 5-1 scoring run.  Defiance (10-17, 5-3 HCAC) then outscored the Quakers, 11-2, that included kills by Windau, sophomore Danielle Robbins (Westland, Mich./Wayne Memorial) and a pair of aces by Dennis and another ace by Kain.  The Yellow Jackets continued to pull away and went on to lead by as many as nine points in the set, 20-11, following a kill by Neargarder.  Earlham then scored four straight points to pull to within five points, 20-15, but that would be as close as the Quakers would get as DC regained control and went on to post the 25-18 set win.

The second set saw the Jackets jump out to an early 11-4 lead which included a pair of kills by Shank and kills by Neargarder and freshman Brooke Plummer (Plain City/Jonathan Alder).  Earlham never threatened in the set as DC went on to lead by as many as 11 points on two ocassions en route to the 25-15 victory.

Neargarder began the third set with a kill to give DC the early 1-0 lead on its way to leading by four points, 6-2, following an attack error by the Quakers.  Earlham responded and eventually tied the set at 7-7.  The Jackets never relinquished the lead, but would not lead by more than two points until a series of small scoring runs gave DC some breathing room, 16-12.  Leading by just two points, a kill by Robbins and an ace by Windau helped spark a 7-2 run to end the set and gave DC the 25-18 set win and the three-set match victory.

Defiance will wrap-up the regular season on Saturday (Oct. 31) when it hosts Franklin (Ind.) College in a HCAC match at the Karl H. Weaner Center.  The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.