Volleyball defeats area-rival Bluffton 25-21, 25-18, 22-25, 25-20
By Tim Glon
ADA — Junior Claire Heitkamp led four Ohio Northern players in double figures in a 25-21, 25-18, 22-25, 25-20 victory over area-rival Bluffton Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears improve to 6-3, while the Beavers fell to 3-6.
Heitkamp had a team-high 13 kills and hit .393 for Ohio Northern.
Senior Kaitlann Hogrefe had 12 kills and six blocks and senior Ellie Gillespie and sophomore Haley Potters added 11 kills each.
Junior Ashley Borchers dished out 48 assists and sophomore Megan Nieszala had 27 digs.
ONU hit .348 in the first set, collecting 19 kills, to win the opener. Northern used a pair of 5-0 runs to turn a 10-6 deficit into a 17-13 lead.
The Beavers would tie the set at 19-all, but ONU would end the set on a 5-2 run.
In set two, another 5-0 Polar Bear run gave the hosts a 22-15 lead. ONU hit .205 with 15 kills in the set while holding the Beavers to just eight kills and an .053 hitting percentage.
Bluffton led for most of Set 3, but ONU scored four straight to go up 19-16.
BU answered with a 5-0 run of its own and held on for the 25-22 win.
Northern led wire-to-wire in Set 4 and a 5-0 run gave the Polar Bears a commanding 14-7 lead.
ONU hit .211 for the match with 59 kills, while BU hit .143 with 46 kills.
Bluffton was led by Kendra Parmenter with a match-high 20 kills.
This weekend, the Polar Bears will travel to the Wittenberg Classic in Springfield. ONU will face Trine (Ind.) on Friday night and will play No. 7-ranked Wittenberg and No. 12-ranked Hope (Mich.) on Saturday.
