Box Score
DePauw 3, Ohio Wesleyan 2
Freshman outside hitter Natalie Dieball (Cincinnati/Lakota East) and junior right-side hitter Grace Cummings (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) led the Ohio Wesleyan offense, but DePauw rallied for a win in a battle of North Coast Athletic Conference unbeatens on Tuesday in Greencastle, Ind.
The Tigers defeated the Bishops by scores of 25-23, 24-26, 22-25, 25-18, 15-9. The DePauw win gives the Tigers at least a share of the NCAC championship and the No. 1 seed in next week's NCAC tournament. Ohio Wesleyan will be the No. 2 seed in the NCAC tournament.
The first set was an edge-of-the-seat affair, with neither team leading by more than 2 points. With the score tied at 20, the Tigers took the lead on a pair of attack errors and got kills from Olivia Karwin, Katie Gansle, and Ashley Haas to take the lead in the match.
Ohio Wesleyan built a 21-16 lead in the second set on an ace by freshman defensive specialist Avery Krause (Cleveland/Holy Name), but DePauw rallied to even the score at 23 on a kill by Gansle. With the score knotted at 24, senior right-side hitter Melissa Murray (Chardon/Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin) and senior middle blocker Claire Solberg (Huron) teamed up on a block to put Bishops ahead, and an attack error provided the final point as the Bishops evened the match. In the third set, the Bishops took a 22-16 lead on a Cummings kill, and kills by junior setter Olivia Osuna (Orlando, Fla./Phillips) and Murray set up a set-ending block by Solberg.
Dieball delivered a kill to give the Bishops an 11-8 lead in the fourth set, but the Tigers reeled off the next 10 points, getting 3 kills from Gansle and 2 each by Haas and Karwin. Ohio Wesleyan rallied to within 20-17 on a Solberg kill, but DePauw scored the next 4 points and got a kill by Kaiden Harrington to force a fifth set. The Tigers opened up a 5-0 lead in the fifth set, collecting a pair of kills by Karwin and another by Lauren Ridgway. Dieball had a pair of kills and Solberg added another to help Ohio Wesleyan narrow the deficit to 12-9, but DePauw scored the final 3 points, ending the match on an ace by Grace Myers.
Dieball led the Bishops with 16 kills, while Cummings had 10 kills with only one error in 21 attempts. Osuna had 22 assists, while sophomore setter Lily Bechina (Chicago, Ill./Jones College Prep) added 21 assists, with the 21 assists raising Bechina's career total to 1020. Solberg finished with a team-best 7 blocks and senior outside hitter Kaitlyn Peters (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestad) had a team-high 23 digs.
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