Volleyball: #23 Otterbein (20-3 Overall, 6-1 OAC) at #17 Ohio Northern (18-5 Overall, 6-1 OAC)
Wednesday, October 27, 2021, 7 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Wednesday's Preview: No. 17 Ohio Northern opens the final week of its 2021 regular season Wednesday hosting No. 23 Otterbein … ONU is coming off a challenging 2-day, 4-game stretch at the Calvin (Mich.) Midwest Invitational on Friday and Saturday in which it faced 3 of the top 6 teams in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll … The Polar Bears got a 3-0 win over Millikin (Ill.) while falling 3-2 to No. 6 Calvin (Mich.), 3-1 to No. 4 Hope (Mich.) and 3-0 to No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) … Senior Melina Woods was named to the All-Tournament Team after tallying a combined 52 kills in the event … ONU currently sits in a 3-way tie with Otterbein and Mount Union for first place in the OAC standings … Northern is currently hitting .248 as a team with 13.2 kills, 17.7 digs, 12.4 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.6 aces per set … Woods leads the team with 249 kills, which ranks seventh in the OAC … Freshman Taylor Baxter has an OAC-high 90 blocks, and freshman Rachel Jennings ranks second in the OAC with 45 aces and fourth in the OAC with 411 digs … Jennings earned OAC Defensive Player of the Week honors for her play last week ... Baxter (.334), Woods (.315) and freshman Erin Wagner (.277) rank third, fourth and seventh, respectively, in the OAC in hitting percentage … Senior Kiki Carle ranks fourth in the OAC with 639 assists, and her 1,797 career assists rank ninth all-time at ONU … Senior Hannah Irmer has 1,252 career digs, which is 156 short of tying Molly Schrader ('99-'02) at 1,408 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Jennings needs 1 ace to break into the top five all-time in that category for freshmen in program history, and her 411 digs rank fifth in program history for freshmen … Baxter needs 1 block to move into fifth place all-time at ONU for freshmen in that category … No. 23 Otterbein, the defending OAC Tournament champion, enters Wednesday's match coming off a 25-23, 21-25, 25-20, 15-25, 6-15 loss at Muskingum, which ended a 19-game win streak … The Cardinals' only other 2 losses this season came at Wittenberg and at Calvin (Mich.) … Sophomore Morgan Hartman ranks fourth in the OAC in aces (38) and fifth in kills (279) … Senior Emma Linehan (.350) and junior Amber Greeley (.349) rank first and second, respectively, in the OAC in hitting percentage … Sophomore Madison McCoy (61) and Greeley (54) rank fifth and sixth, respectively, in the OAC in blocks … Junior Bridget Oder ranks fifth in the OAC in digs with 398 … Junior Carlie Craycraft is tied for fifth in the OAC in aces with 36.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
1. | Woods | 249 | 1. | Baxter | 90 | 1. | Jennings | 45 | 1. | Jennings | 411 | 1. | Carle | 639 | ||||
2. | Baxter | 231 | 2. | Bowmar | 43 | 2. | Baxter | 26 | 2. | H. Irmer | 352 | 2. | Conrad | 235 | ||||
3. | Strozewski | 183 | 3. | Strozewski | 37 | 3. | Carle | 19 | 3. | Carle | 161 | 3. | Jennings | 52 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Otterbein by a 53-9 margin, including 22-4 in Ada … The teams' last meeting was a doubleheader in April as part of the delayed 2020 season, which the teams split, with each team getting a 3-2 win.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 31-8 record (.795 winning percentage), including 19-4 (.826 winning percentage) in OAC play.