Ben Blotner
Contributing Writer
The Fighting Scots volleyball team was successful against the Kenyon College Ladies on Wednesday, Oct. 23, pulling off a 3-1 win at Timken Gymnasium. The Ladies came out on top in the first set before Wooster rallied back and rolled to three consecutive victories.
“The win over Kenyon was a complete team win,” said AnnaMedema’20.“Everyone stepped up in their roles both on and off the court.”
“Staying accountable to the little things and learning from our mistakes has been key for this team all year long, and it was great to see us be able to execute,” said head coach Sarah Davis. “It was a total team effort.”
Kenyon got off to a hot startintheopeningset,racing out to a 10-4 lead and never looking back. The Ladies increased their edge to 21- 13 before Wooster rattled of fiveconsecutivepoints,cutting the deficit to three. Kenyon, however, would finish the job with four straight points of its own, closing out a 25-18 victory.
“After losing the first set, we didn’t get discouraged or upset with each other,” Medema said. This “resilience would pay dividends for the Scots, who flippedthe script in the second set with a decisive 25-10 win. Wooster cruised to an even more dominant start than Kenyon achieved in the previous set, leading 12-2 at one point and never allowing the Ladies within 10 points from there. Kills by three different players, includingtwobyCamiMiller ’20, helped the Scots reel off the final five points in a row. The third set was the closest of the match, and Davis referred to it as a turning point in the competition, citing multiple crucial plays after the score was tied at 19-19.“We had four huge plays in a row where we were mentally engaged and executed the little things that we hadn’t done earlier in the match,”Davis said. “A double block by [Miller] a n d [Medema] of Kenyon’s attacking setter, a big dig and great coverage by middle blocker Katie Billetdeaux ’22, [Miller] keeping a ball in play and Meghan Botsch ’21 coming back with a huge solo block.” Wooster jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the set before Kenyon pulledevenat14andbriefly grabbed the lead. The teams continued to go back and forth until the critical sequence gave Wooster a lead it would not relinquish, as the Scots grinded out a 25-23 nailbiter to take a 2-1 advantage in sets. With the momentum on their side, the Scots dominated once again in the fourth and final set, jumping out to a 6-0 lead and going on to win 25-11.“It’s the first time we’ve beaten Kenyon in my four years here, and the win gave us our highest standing in conference since 2013,” Medema said. “It was amazing to see all our hard work and progress pay off. As a senior, I couldn’t ask for a better season with this amazing team!”