After traveling to Bluffton on Friday, the Kenyon women’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season in a hard-fought battle against the Bluffton University Beavers. Bluffton outscored Kenyon, securing a decisive 91-61 victory. The Owls will now regroup and look to regain their previous momentum as they head into the beginning of the season with a 2-1 record. 

To start the first quarter, Kenyon opened the scoring and maintained aggressive defense to prevent Bluffton from gaining offensive control. The Owls forced turnovers, with Alyssa Horsley ’28 swiftly transitioning from defense to offense and converting the steal into an early layup. However, the Beavers maintained a somewhat steady lead, making mid-range shots, layups and floaters in the paint. The Owls descended into an offensive lull, unable to capitalize at the rim, and quickly fell to a 10-5 deficit in the first quarter. Kiana Mollabashy ’28 scored a 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 11-8, and while the Owls continued to apply pressure, they couldn’t manage to pull ahead of the Beavers at the end of the opening quarter. 

Going into the second period, the Owls hoped to overpower the Beavers and generate more defensive pressure. Kenyon swiftly evened out the score to 16-16, but Bluffton responded and sustained a consistent lead for the remainder of the quarter. Kenyon’s defense struggled to find an answer to Bluffton’s attacking onslaught, and the Owls had to take two timeouts to strategize. The quarter ended with a dominant offensive run by the Beavers and a score of 47-29. 

After failing to control Bluffton’s attacking onslaught, Kenyon entered the third quarter trying to generate some defensive and offensive consistency. The Owls worked hard and earned gritty defensive turnovers, but nonetheless, the Beavers continued their commanding performance with a 72-45 lead by the end of the third. 

Kenyon found its groove in the fourth quarter, but the damage had already been done. The Beavers’ seamless transition from defense to offense proved to be a struggle for the Owls to match. Bluffton ended up closing out the contest with a comfortable lead and a score of 91-61. The Owls shot 40.7% (24-59), and had limited success from the three by shooting 27.3% (6-22).

This weekend, the Owls have two games, facing The University of Olivet (Mich.) and Kalamazoo College (Mich.) on the road and looking to improve from here on out.