MEDIA, Pa. - It was a big night for Rachel Ofili and the rest of the Bryn Mawr volleyball team. The Owls withstood a furious rally from Penn State Brandywine to come away with a 3-2 (30-28, 25-17, 21-25, 24-26, 15-9) victory on the road. Ofili, a senior middle blocker for the Owls, registered 25 kills on the night to lead all scorers in the match. Penn State Brandywine got 16 kills out of Nicole Poissant, who also led the Nittany Lions with 19 digs in the losing effort. The Owls handed Brandywine just their second loss of the season with the win this evening.

Bryn Mawr (5-7) got off to a bit of a sluggish start in the opening frame of the match, falling behind 4-0 early. However, the Owls chipped away at their deficit right away, and a three-point run starting with a kill from Ofili helped Bryn Mawr tie things back up at 9-9. Penn State Brandywine (7-2) once again made a run to pull away, and led 17-15 at one point. However, another Ofili kill triggered a four-point run to help the Owls overtake their hosts. Bryn Mawr worked their advantage all the way to 23-20. That's when Brandywine put together one final run, turning their three-point deficit into a 24-23 lead and putting them one point away from taking the first set. Bryn Mawr would not be denied, however. Their resilience shone through as the team battled off that point. After the teams continued to swap points back and forth, the Owls finally strung together a kill from Lauren Shue and a Brandywine attack error to take a thrilling 30-28 win in the frame.

The second set was a little less frenetic for the Owls, as the team held a fairly comfortable lead most of the way through. A kill by Megan Kilmer off of an assist from Zoe Holman made it 17-12. Holman was another big player for Bryn Mawr on the evening. The senior setter notched 42 assists on the night, a new career-high for her and the fifth-most assists in a five set match in program history. When Sarah Gates pounded down a kill off of another great set from Holman, the Owls closed out the second set with a 25-17 win.

Now facing a tough hole to dig out of, Penn State Brandywine immediately got to work. With a 7-1 record coming into the night, the Nittany Lions were not a team that was going to fold under pressure, and it certainly showed. The hosts clawed all the way back into the match by winning the third set 25-21 and eeking out the fourth 26-24. That set the stage for a winner-take-all fifth set.

Bryn Mawr immediately got things off on the right foot as Ofili tallied a block on Halee Kusner to take a 1-0 lead out of the gate. The block would also play a huge role in the evening for Bryn Mawr. The Owls recorded 11 solo blocks on the night, a team record for the program in a match. After a kill from Ofili, the talented senior posted another block to give Bryn Mawr a 3-0 lead. After a kill by Brandywine, the Owls extended their lead with two more kills from Ofili and another from Noemi Moreno, forcing the hosts to call a timeout. The Nittany Lions managed to scrap their way back into the set, and had climbed back within 9-10 before the Owls slammed the door once and for all. A service error put Bryn Mawr on serve, and Shue immediately took advantage of that with two aces. Fittingly on the night, it was Ofili who closed things out with two more kills, giving the Owls a much-deserved 3-2 victory in the match.

With the win, Bryn Mawr moves to 5-7 on the year. The Owls will now spend the rest of the week prepping for their first conference match. Bryn Mawr will host Centennial Conference foe McDaniel on Saturday afternoon in the first league tilt of the season. The Green Terror are currently 7-4 on the year, and have already dropped a conference match to Muhlenberg last Wednesday. This Saturday's match will tip off at 12:00 noon.