Five register double figures in kills to lead Volleyball past Baldwin Wallace in OAC Tournament Quarterfinals
By Tim Glon
ADA — Ohio Northern had five different players register double figures in kills in a 25-19, 22-25, 25-17, 25-15 victory over Baldwin Wallace in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Ohio Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament Tuesday night at the ONU Sports Center.
The third-seeded Polar Bears (19-8 overall) advance to the semifinals on Friday night and will face second-seeded Heidelberg at 5 pm at Mount Union.
The sixth-seeded Yellow Jackets end their season with an 11-18 record.
Sophomore Ellie Gillespie led ONU with 15 kills and 27 digs.
Freshman Claire Heitkamp had 13 kills, freshman Kelli Weininger had 11 kills, freshman Kristin Sessler had 10 kills and 26 digs and sophomore Kaitlann Hogrefe had 10 kills for the Polar Bears.
BW was led by Colleen Bonacci with 11 kills.
Northern registered 19 kills in the first set, led by eight kills from Gillespie, and used an 8-0 run to take a 23-17 lead.
ONU led 22-21 in Set 2, but the Yellow Jackets would score the final four points to even the match at 1-1 with a 25-22 Set 2 victory.
With the score tied 8-8 in Set 3, Northern used an 8-1 run on the strength of three kills from Hogrefe and two kills by Heitkamp, to take a 16-9 lead.
In Set 4, three kills by Weininger and a kill from Heitkamp sparked a 5-0 run that would turn a 13-10 ONU lead into a commanding 18-10 advantage.
The Polar Bears hit a sparkling .326 in the fourth and final set.
"We were inconsistent tonight, but we survived and advanced," ONU head coach Kate Witte said. "I thought we did a good job of battling. Give BW credit, they played hard all night and are a very scrappy team. Their defense frustrated us a bit, but we kept attacking and got the job done."
Ohio Northern hit .214 for the match with 64 kills, while Baldwin Wallace was limited to a .131 hitting percentage with 42 kills.
Sophomore Heather Saunier dished out 38 assists for the Polar Bears.
