No. 25 Volleyball reaches finals of OAC Tournament with 4-set victory over Otterbein in semifinals

By Tim Glon

ADA — The No. 25-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team will play for a league championship on Saturday.

The second-seeded Polar Bears advanced to the finals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament with a 25-11, 25-22, 23-25, 25-19 victory over sixth-seeded Otterbein Thursday evening at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears (24-5 overall) will play in the OAC Tournament finals at top-seeded Heidelberg at 2 pm on Saturday.

Heidelberg advanced with a come-from-behind 5-set win over fifth-seeded John Carroll on Thursday.

Junior Claire Heitkamp had 11 kills and senior Kaitlann Hogrefe added 10 kills for ONU.

OU was led by Morgan Lowenkamp with a match-high 19 kills.

In Set 1, ONU used a 5-0 run and a 5-1 run to take a commanding 20-9 advantage. Northern hit an impressive .375 with 14 kills in the opening set.

In Set 2, ONU rallied from a 20-16 deficit with an 8-1 run, keyed by back-to-back aces by Hogrefe, to win the second set.

Otterbein led 19-14 in the third set before the Polar Bears rallied.

A kill by senior Ellie Gillespie sparked a 3-0 run and a kill by junior Kristin Sessler gave ONU a 23-22 lead.

But the Cardinals had two kills and an ace to win the set 25-23.

In Set 4, Northern snapped a 17-all tie by scoring eight of the match's final 10 points.

An ace by freshman Taylor Emery made it 24-18 and a kill by Gillespie ended the match and sent ONU into the finals for the 24th time in the 32-year history of the tournament.

Northern hit .288 for the match with 49 kills and 11 errors on 132 attempts. Otterbein his .162 with 54 kills and 30 errors on 148 attempts.

Junior Ashley Borchers dished out 37 assists and Gillespie and freshman Michaela Sharlow had 13 digs each.