BRYN MAWR, Pa. - The Bryn Mawr volleyball team put on quite a showing earlier Wednesday evening in what was one of the more thrilling matches for the Owls in recent memory. After falling behind 0-2, Bryn Mawr battled back to force a decisive fifth set. Then, the Owls fought off two straight match-points before ultimately taking a 16-14 win in the frame to seal a fantastic 3-2 win. Senior Rachel Ofili led the Owls with 25 kills and a strong .526 attack percentage on the night. Zoe Holman racked up 45 assists, and Alexandra Nagelski posted 23 digs on the night in a huge defensive effort. Ursinus was led by Karla Thiele, who tallied 18 kills in the losing effort for the Bears.

Bryn Mawr (6-8, 1-1 Centennial) dug themselves a big hole with some rough play in the opening two sets. The first set started out as a back-and-forth affair, but by the midway point, Ursinus (5-11, 0-3 Centennial) had jumped out to a lead. The Bears used a four-point run to go ahead 10-7, and later in the frame, they got back in front 21-20. Bryn Mawr used a kill from Sarah Gates to tie the match back up briefly, but then another four-point run closed things out for the Bears.

The second set was much harder to swallow for the Owls. Bryn Mawr was dominant from the start in that frame, at one point going on a 9-2 run to get out to a commanding 18-6 lead in the set. Megan Kilmer tallied three kills in that run and Gates notched an ace as well, and even a pair of Ursinus timeouts couldn't slow the Owls down. However, Ursinus finally got a side out, and then the visitors began chipping away at the Bryn Mawr lead. Emily van Mulbregt was the server for the Bears, and Bryn Mawr simply could not handle her serves. Van Mulbregt found empty spots on the other side of the court for five aces and helped Ursinus go on an absurd 14-0 run to turn what could have been an easy Bryn Mawr win into a very tight set. Somehow, Bryn Mawr overcame that bad run to retake a one point lead, but the Bears got back to level and then won the last two points on two Owls attack errors to stun the hosts and take a big 2-0 lead in the match.

From that point on, there was a new fire in the belly of the Owls. Bryn Mawr turned up the level of play bigtime, once again taking a lead in the third set. Ofili was a big part of that, as she recorded seven kills on eight attempts in the set. Gates, Kilmer, and Caroline Cosby also each tallied kills in the frame, and the Owls were able to coast to a 25-15 win in the frame and get some momentum back. The fourth set went in a similar fashion; although Ursinus led 11-10 midway through, the Owls went on a 10-1 run to take a 20-12 lead. The Owls would close out that set on a service error by the Bears and take the fourth set in 25-21 fashion. One of the big reasons for the turnaround in the third and fourth sets was a big jump in the Owls attack percentage. Bryn Mawr posted meager .094 and .088 percentages in the first two frames, but they bumped those way up in the next two sets. In the third, they posted a .343 percentage, and a .190 percentage in the fourth was enough to help force a deciding fifth set.

Bryn Mawr jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the fifth, getting some help from the Bears on a service error and an attack error. However, Ursinus rallied and went on a 4-0 run of their own to get back in the lead. Bryn Mawr tied things back up at 4-4, but still didn't have a kill in the set. That changed on the on Bryn Mawr's next point, as Ofili notched another kill to tie things at 5-5. The senior blasted another kill to get Bryn Mawr the lead, and then a kill from Kilmer and another from Ofili made it an 8-5 Bryn Mawr lead.

After the change of sides, Ursinus picked up some momentum of their own. The visitors went on a 6-3 run to tie the set at 11-all. Noemi Moreno earned a kill to get Bryn Mawr in front once again, but Ursinus leapfrogged back ahead on a service error and a kill by Grace LaDelfa. Bryn Mawr used a timeout, but another Ursinus kill from Allison Raff got the visitors to match point. Moreno helped the Owls stave off the first match point with another kill. Then, after an Ursinus timeout, it was Gates who recorded another Owls kill to tie things up at 14-14. An attack error by Ursinus put Bryn Mawr on match point themselves, and then Gates completed the epic comeback with one last kill after a great serve from Moreno.

The win is the first Centennial Conference victory of the season for Bryn Mawr, and they move to 1-1 in the league after tonight's results. It is also the 21st victory all-time for the Owls over Ursinus, their most against any Centennial Conference opponent. Bryn Mawr will look to capitalize on the momentum from tonight's win and get another victory on Saturday afternoon as Bryn Mawr will host Franklin & Marshall. The Diplomats are 9-7 on the year and 2-1 in conference play and are coming off of a 3-1 loss to Swarthmore. Saturday's contest is slated to start at 2:00 PM in the Class of 1958 Gymnasium.