“The crowd was awesome tonight,” said MVNU head coach Paul Swanson, who has seen his share of large crowds over the years with all the success of the Lady Cougars that included a 70-match home win streak in the ‘90s. “They were into the match and made it a lot of fun for our team to perform. It was a great atmosphere and we hope that they come back to every match.”

The two teams traded points to start the first set with the Big Red (0-1), who were playing their season opener, taking their only lead of the match on an ace early on to make the score 2-1 in favor of Denison. After MVNU (7-2) responded with a 10-3 run to go in front 11-5, the Big Red closed the gap to 13-12 behind good team play.

A kill by sophomore middle hitter Sarah Yutzy stopped a five-point run by Denison and put the Lady Cougars up 14-12, and the lead grew to 17-13 as junior right-side hitter Courtney Springer, freshman middle hitter Gina Porto (left), and senior outside hitter Audrey Hickinbotham smashed three consecutive kills.

After a sideout by the Big Red closed the gap to 17-14, MVNU went on a six-point run to push the margin to 22-14. In the middle of that surge, the two teams battled for one point with a two-minute rally that ended with a kill by sophomore middle hitter Jackie Albrecht of the Lady Cougars and left the partisan MVNU crowd on their feet for a standing ovation that lasted for the first minute of a Denison timeout that followed.

The momentum from winning that point propelled the Lady Cougars to a 25-15 win in the set as Albrecht tacked on another kill and served up an ace on set point.

The second set was all MVNU as the Big Red were within one point early on three occasions - the last of which was 3-2. From there, the closest that Denison would get would be at 7-5 before the Lady Cougars cruised to the 25-11 victory as Porto posted three blocks and two kills in the set, Albrecht smashed five kills to go with three aces, and junior middle hitter Julie Haumschild slammed a kill for the final point.

MVNU looked to carry the momentum over into the third set as the Lady Cougars took a quick 5-0 lead as Albrecht registered another ace and Yutzy and Hickinbotham each pounded a kill. However, with MVNU holding an 8-2 advantage, the Big Red rattled off four straight points to pull within 8-6.

A kill by junior setter Kaylin Austen stopped the Denison run and after a pair of sideouts the Lady Cougars went on a five-point run of their own to move in front 14-7.

The Big Red did not give in, though, and closed the gap to 15-11. With MVNU holding an 18-13 advantage, the Lady Cougars rattled off four straight points and went on to take the set 25-15 as freshman outside hitter Megan Yoder hammered two kills including one for the final point of the match.

Albrecht finished with a team-high 11 kills, nine digs, six aces, and five blocks, while Porto added seven kills and four blocks. Austen handed out 28 assists, and sophomore defensive specialist Caitlin Myles (right) posted a team-leading 10 digs to go with three aces. Springer and Yutzy combined for four and three blocks respectively with Yutzy also pounding five kills, while freshman outside hitter Cieleste Rose served up three aces as MVNU finished with 14 aces as a team.

“It was great to be able to get everyone involved in this win and to have the freshmen get to experience playing in front of the home crowd,” said Swanson. “Jackie hit the ball well tonight and Caitlin did a good job defensively. After we got things going midway through the first set, I was pretty pleased with our consistency the rest of the match. It is always nice to play well in front of a large crowd.”

MVNU will return to action on Saturday when the Lady Cougars will host a non-conference tri-match. The day begins with MVNU taking on Indiana University-Southeast at 9:30 a.m. and then the Lady Cougars facing Concordia (Mich.) University at 1:30 p.m. Indiana-Southeast and Concordia will square off against each other at 11:30 a.m.