Career nights from two of its seniors propelled The College of Wooster volleyball team to a season-opening 26-24, 21-25, 25-20, 25-22 win over Allegheny College on Tuesday evening at Timken Gymnasium.

Jordan Laraway's senior year started with 18 kills, a career-high by five. She finished a dig shy of a double-double and turned all the momentum Wooster's way with a fourth-set block. Classmate Natalie Hohman fired off a career-high six aces to go with four kills from her defensive specialist position.

In the fourth set, Allegheny (0-1) was within 16-15 when sophomore Kennedy Muhlenkamp snuck in a kill on touch two from the setter position. That was followed by a solo block from Laraway, who denied Marissa Rish's attack from the right side. Later, sophomore Tamarra Talbert logged block six of the night, teaming up with Muhlenkamp to stop Jillian Smetana. On the next rally, Rish again could not get past Laraway, who timed up the block with Talbert to make it 21-15, Wooster.

Wooster held off Allegheny's late charge in the fourth, as Laraway put home kill 18 on the night to make it 23-20. A kill from junior MC Werth capped off Wooster's first season-opening win since 2017.

In the first set, Wooster rallied late, overcoming deficits of 23-21 and 24-23. Both times Laraway was the hero with a kill, and later, a kill from Talbert finished off the opening set.

Wooster raced out to a big lead in set three and logged three runs of 4-0 or better in the frame. Hohman's career-high-tying fourth ace of the night capped the Scots' early 5-0 stretch that made it 5-1. An Allegheny service error was followed by a Muhlenkamp ace that started the Scots' second stretch of the frame with four straight points or better. A bad set attempt from Rish doubled Wooster's lead at 12-6. Then, Laraway tallied an ace during Wooster's third big run of the frame, and that was followed by Carlee Pepperman's attack getting knocked down by Talbert and Werth at the net.

Laraway hit .310 to start her senior year, needing just 42 swings to get to 18 kills. Werth followed with five, and as a team, Wooster hit .172 for the match. Muhlenkamp passed out 33 of Wooster's 38 assists and led the team with 14 digs. Double-digit dig efforts were logged by junior Catherine Muzilla (13), Hohman (10), and first-year Claire Buchholz (10), who served up an ace on her first collegiate play.

Wooster's block factored heavily into the win, as the Scots scored 11 points at the net. That enabled the Scots to overcome the Gators' 55 kills. Skyler Fatola led Allegheny with 13 and was closely followed by Rish's 12 and Jillian Smetana's 11. Duru Akbas logged 21 digs to lead all players.

Next, Wooster is off to Saint Vincent College for a quartet of matches this weekend, starting with Friday's 4 p.m. one against Grove City College (1-0).