It has been a long time coming, but the wait is finally over. On Tuesday, Sept 18, the Oberlin volleyball team won its first conference game since October 18, 2003. The Yeowomen won in fashion, dominating Kenyon College 3-0.

The Yeowomen traveled to Gambier, OH to face Kenyon in their second conference game of the season. First-year Amanda Wysk helped lead Oberlin over Kenyon 30-15, 30-6 and 30-17 in three straight sets. Wysk had 14 kills on the night as she continued to put up big numbers for Oberlin.

Junior Amanda Van Allen was ecstatic with the victory, explaining that it was an entire team effort.

“I think we were able to pull out the win because we stayed disciplined. It was nice to be on the other side of the spectrum and get to kill another team,” said Van Allen. “We’ve been trying to improve our team game, and I’m glad we were able to put things together against Kenyon.”

The dominating performance was only a matter of time for the Yeowomen, as they have shown excellent form within the last week.

Last weekend they headed to New Wilmington, PA to play in the Westminster College Tournament. To start things off, the team got a chance to get one back on Allegheny College, which defeated Oberlin only two days earlier.

Allegheny came out on top in Oberlin’s tournament opener, but it was a totally different story from the relatively easy 3-0 victory the team had claimed previously. The Yeowomen had to put in their best until the end as the game finished in a contested fifth set, won 18-16 by the Gators.

In their second game of the tournament, Oberlin went up against Penn State-Behrend College from Pennsylvania. The Penn team had the upper hand in the game as the Yeowomen seemed fatigued from the earlier game that day. In the end it was an easy win for Penn as it won in straight sets 32-30, 30-19 and 30-19.

Oberlin claimed its first and only victory of the Westminster tournament against the hosts on match day two of the tournament. Both teams played hard, and Oberlin came narrowly close to losing the game as it dropped the first two games 21-30 and 20-30. The Yeowomen launched a comeback at the start of the third game and went on to win the next three sets 30-23, 30-15 and 15-11.

The tournament closed off on the low for the Yeowomen as they were downed by the College of Wooster in another five-game heartbreaker despite strong performances from Wysk and fellow first-year Anna Frackman.

Oberlin started the match with some promise, claiming the first game 30-26. Wooster stepped up in the second, winning 30-21 while Oberlin got the edge back in the third, winning 30-27. Once again Wooster bounced back to claim the fourth game 30-23, setting up a competitive deciding game. Both teams kept things close through the period, intent on winning the game. In the end Wooster pulled away, claiming the game 16-14. Wysk and Frack each got 16 kills in the loss.

The win against Kenyon moves Oberlin up to 3-7 overall and 1-1 in conference play. The Yeomen are in action next against Wittenberg in a home conference contest tonight at 8 p.m.