Volleyball: NCAA III Tournament 1st Round - #20 Ohio Northern (22-7 Overall) at #18 Wisconsin-Whitewater (24-7 Overall)
Thursday, November 8, 2018, 5:30 pm - Van Noord Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich.
| NCAA Tournament site | Match Notes (.pdf) |
Thursday's Preview: The No. 20-ranked Ohio Northern women's volleyball team will face No. 18 Wisconsin-Whitewater in the first round of the 2018 NCAA III Tournament in the Grand rapids, Mich., Regional, hosted by No. 1-ranked Calvin (Mich.) ... The Polar Bears enter the NCAA Tournament with a 22-7 overall record and won the OAC's automatic bid to the tournament by winning the OAC Tournament title last Saturday ... Northern is the No. 5 seed in this year's NCAA Tournament and UWW is the No. 4 seed ... Thursday's victor will advance to the second round on Friday and play either top-ranked Calvin or eighth-seeded Greenville (Ill.) at 7 pm ... The Regional finals match is slated for Saturday night at 7 pm ... ONU is making its 31st appearance in the 38-year history of the NCAA III Tournament ... The Polar Bears have a 37-30 record in NCAA Tournament play and reached the finals in 1989 and the semifinals in 2008 ... Through 29 matches this season, Huppert leads the team and is third in the OAC with 361 kills while Jordan is second on the team and 10th in the OAC with 277 kills ... Huppert is second in the OAC with a .350 hitting percentage ... Sophomore Katie Wade currently leads the team and ranks fourth in the OAC with 1,013 assists ... Defensively, junior McKenna Hostetler leads the team and ranks fifth in the OAC with 514 digs, and classmate Madison Broering is second for ONU and 7th in the OAC with 456 digs ... Huppert surpassed the 1,000 career kill mark last week and now has 1,018 career kills in 95 matches ... The Warhawks (24-7 overall) are making their 26th NCAA Tournament appearance in the past 27 seasons and their 30th appearance overall ... UW-Whitewater finished second in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings and made its sixth straight appearance in the WIAC Tournament championship match, earning a Pool C (at-large) bid to the NCAA Tournament ... Erin McNeil leads UWW with 278 kills ... Rachel Butterfield is second with 254 kills, Emma Aske is third with 215 kills and Ashton Doll is fourth with 203 kills ... Doll also leads the team with 127 blocks ... KellyAnn Sotiros and Paige Manssen lead the team in assists with 598 and 504, respectively.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Huppert | 361 | 1. | Huppert | 69 | 1. | Hostetler | 43 | 1. | Hostetler | 514 | 1. | Wade | 1,013 | ||||
| 2. | Jordan | 277 | 2. | Ellis | 56 | 2. | Irmer | 30 | 2. | Broering | 456 | 2. | Carle | 168 | ||||
| 3. | Ellis | 219 | 3. | Andres | 25 | 3. | Broering | 27 | 3. | Wade | 240 | 3. | Hostetler | 40 |
All-Time Series: Wisconsin-Whitewater leads the all-time series between the two programs by a 4-1 margin ... The two teams have not played since 2011, when the Warhawks swept the Polar Bears at the Washington (Mo.) Tournament ... ONU's victory came at the 2003 Washington Invitational by a 3-1 margin ... This is the first meeting in the NCAA Tournament, despite the two teams combining for 61 NCAA Tournament appearances theween them.
Head Coach Kate Witte: Witte is currently in her 28th season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern … She owns a coaching record of 715-234, a .753 winning percentage, and is the school's all-time wins leader.
