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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Cardinal volleyball team kept its perfect record in tact Tuesday evening, improving to 10-0 by avenging a last-season loss against Kenyon College inside the Rike Center.

Kenyon handed Otterbein a 3-0 defeat early last year , but this time it was the Cardinals emerging victorious in straight sets at 25-17, 25-19 and then 32-30 in a wild and frenzied third frame.

Otterbein controlled the initial two frames for most of the way, breaking open an 11-9 margin in the first and then opening a sizeable 14-5 cushion in the second. The Cardinals appeared on track to close out the third set, leading 21-15 and then again at 24-21 before the Ladies made an admirable comeback.

Kenyon (6-1) fought off three-straight match points to draw even at 24, and the two teams proceeded to trade a whopping 12-consecutive points back and forth for ties at 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Otterbein eventually strung together two in a row, getting kills from freshman Emily Shuk and junior setter Andrea Miller to remain unscathed on the season.

Senior middle hitter Morgan Lowenkamp was sensational from start to finish, keeping a clean hitting sheet and ultimately going for 16 kills and no errors on 24 attempts. The .667 hitting percentage is good enough to crack the top-10 in program history for a single match.

"Andrea and I are so close off the court and we have been able to develop some serious chemistry on it," Lowenkamp said. "I don't know how the kid does it but she finds me perfectly on almost every ball, so my job is really the easy part."

Miller, who entered the night ranked fifth nationally in assists, dished out another 41 in the winning effort and is now averaging 11.44 per set. She also had 12 digs for her fifth double-double of the fall.

Otterbein hit a stellar .355 as a team, with junior Hadley Sterett adding 13 kills herself and classmate Alana King-Mendenhall hitting .583 on a 7-0-12 line. She was also part of four blocks.

Libero Ashlyn Leon tallied 13 digs as the defense limited Kenyon leading hitter Delaney Swanson to a .054 percentage across her match-high 37 attempts.

"We have been playing loose and confident," added Lowenkamp, the current OAC leader in hitting percentage. "The talent we added in the offseason is making a strong difference and we have really figured out how to take a breath, regain composure and fight back from any adversity within a match. It's a new team culture and we are enjoying creating new chemistry and connections."

Otterbein will have the rest of the week off before hosting Mount Vernon Nazarene next Tuesday night, where the team will look to match the program's best start to a season at 11-0, done back in 2009. The win also inches head coach Monica Wright (198 career wins) closer to a nice milestone.