#6 Tartans Drop Denison, 3-1, on Senior Night

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's volleyball team hosted Denison University Friday evening as part of its mini invitational. The sixth-ranked Tartans improved to 23-1 with a 3-1 win against the Big Red who is now 11-11. 

Senior Heather Holton (Haslett, Mich. / Haslett) led the team with 14 kills and a hitting percentag of .414 while fellow senior Eliza Donohue (Lancaster, Pa. / Hempfield) had 11 kills and junior Lauren Mueller (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown STEM Academy) had 10 kills. Sophomore Maia So-Holloway (Oakland, Calif. / Sacred Heart Cathedral) had 20 assists and 15 digs while senior Amanda Thiele (Lakeland, Fla. / George Jenkins) had 18 assists and sophomore Kayla Yew (San Francisco, Calif. / Sacred Heart Cathedral) led with 23 digs. Senior Hannah Wooten (Hughson, Calif. / Hughson) also collected double-digit digs with 15.

Donohue put the Tartans ahead 8-4 in with back-to-back kills and led the team in the first set with five kills. Fellow seniors Shalani Stockton (McAllen, Texas / McAllen Memorial) and Holton also put down back-to-back kills in the set which the Tartans won 25-19. 

The Tartans led 12-9 in the second set after a service ace by Donohue which prompted a timeout by the Big Red. Out of the timeout, the Big Red used a 10-3 run to take a 19-15 lead causing the Tartans to take their own timeout. The Tartans returned to the court and ran off seven straight points to retake the lead, one they didn't relinquish again, taking the set, 25-23. 

The Big Red opened the third set with a 7-3 advantage before Holton put down a cross-court kill to slow the run. Mueller later put down a kill that cut the deficit to one, 8-7, but the Big Red pushed their advantage to 11-7 and later to 20-10, before winning 25-20.

The fourth set began with a 7-0 blitz by the Tartans which included two service aces by So-Holloway and two kills by Mueller. Two service aces by Yew gave the Tartans a 11-3 advantage which they ran to 14-4 via two kills by Holton and a Denison attack error. The Tartans extended the lead to 18-10 on kills by Mueller and junior Sarah Jurgens (Eagan, Minn. / Eagan) before three attack errors by the Big Red gave the home team a 21-10 edge. The final four points for the Tartans came via a kill, as they went on for the 25-20 set win.

The Tartans will continue action at home on Saturday, October 21 against Cabrini College at 1:00 p.m. and Haverford College at 3:00 p.m.