No. 19 Volleyball sweeps Wilmington 25-8, 25-11, 25-21
By Tim Glon
ADA — No. 19-ranked Ohio Northern swept Wilmington 25-8, 25-11, 25-21 in an Ohio Athletic Conference volleyball match on Tuesday night at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears (14-4 overall, 3-1 OAC) played all 20 healthy players on their roster and were led by junior Chelsea Huppert (Bremen, Ind.) with nine kills and a .529 hitting percentage.
Freshman Madi Ellis (Delphos/Saint John's) had eight kills and a .700 hitting percentag for ONU.
The Quakers (5-16, 0-4) got six kills each from Jillian Wesco and Karrah Wind.
In all, 12 different Ohio Northern players had at least one kill and six other players had at least one dig in the contest.
Freshman Kiki Carle (Cincinnati/Mother of Mercy) had a career-high 22 assists in just two sets in her first career start.
In the opening set, ONU went on an impressive 11-0 run to grab an 19-6 lead, en route to the 25-8 win.
In Set 2, the Polar Bears methodically pulled out to a 19-8 lead and cruised from there.
The third set was more balanced as Wilmington led early. Trailing 13-10, the Polar Bears went on a pair of 4-0 runs to grab an 18-15 lead.
Leading 24-21, a kills from Junior Sydney Bapst (Grove City) ended the match for Northern.
ONU hit .348 for the match with 41 kills and nine errors on 92 attempts, while WC hit .021 with 22 kills and 20 errors on 96 attempts.
The Polar Bears will return to action Friday and Saturday at the Calvin (Mich.) Midwest Invitational tournament.
Ohio Northern will face Elmhurst (Ill.) and top-ranked Calvin on Friday evening and will play Susquehanna (Pa.) and No. 16-ranked Hope (Mich.) on Saturday afternoon.