No. 17 Volleyball wins battle of OAC leaders, knocks off No. 23 Otterbein in four sets

By Tim Glon

ADA — The No. 17-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team picked up a key Ohio Athletic Conference victory, downing No. 23 Otterbein 25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 25-19 in a battle of league leaders on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears (19-5 overall) remain in first place in the OAC with a 7-1 mark, while the Cardinals fall to 20-4, 6-2.

Northern remains in a first place tie with Mount Union (20-5, 7-1), setting up a winner-take-all match for the league title on Saturday afternoon at 1 pm at the ONU Sports Center.

Freshman Taylor Baxter (Bellevue) had 12 kills and freshman Erin Wagner (Massillon/Perry) added 10 kills for ONU.

Senior Melina Woods (Ada) and sophomore Sydney Eggleton (Southfield, Mich./Frarmington) each chipped nine kills and freshman Emma Strozewski (Lakeville, Minn./North) had eight kills in the balanced Ohio Northern offensive.

OU was led by Emma Linehan with 13 kills in 19 swings for a .684 hitting percentage.

Northern used a 5-0 run to grab a quick 9-6 lead in the opening set. The ONU lead was 19-16 when the Polar Bears used a 5-1 run to grab a 24-17 advantage.

A 7-1 run in set two gave Northern a 18-13 advantage. The hosts then closed the set on a 6-1 run to go up 2-0.

Trailing 15-10 in Set 3, ONU went on an 8-0 run to grab an 18-15 lead. The Cardinals answered with a 4-0 run to regain a 19-18 lead.

The teams traded points and were tied at 19, 20 and 21-all before OU ended the set on a 4-0 run.

Northern took control of set four quickly, racing to leads of 4-1, 10-5 and 14-8.

A 4-0 Otterbein run trimmed ONU's lead to 16-14, but Northern slowly expanded the lead back to 24-18 and ended the match on an OU error.

Northern hit .259 with 53 kills and 15 errors on 147 attacks, while Otterbein hit .189 with 54 kills and 23 errors on 164 attempts.

Baxter added six blocks to her 12 kills and freshman Rachel Jennings (Novi, Mich.) had 22 digs for ONU.