No. 16 Volleyball sweeps area-rival Bluffton 25-23, 25-17, 25-13

By Tim Glon

BLUFFTON — Senior All-American Chelsea Huppert (Bremen, Ind.) and freshman Madison Kern (Loveland/Mount Notre Dame) each had 10 kills to lead the No. 16-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team to a 25-23, 25-17, 25-13 victory at area-rival Bluffton on Tuesday night at the Sommer Center.

The Polar Bears (8-3 overall) also got five blocks from Huppert and four blocks from Kern in the win.

The Beavers (2-10) were led by Sarah Heydinger with 10 kills.

Northern was efficient on offense most of the evening, hitting .293 as a team with 43 kills and only seven hitting errors.

ONU hit .349 in the opening set with 16 kills and only one error and rallied from a 21-19 deficit to win the opener 25-23.

Trailing 12-10 in set two, Northern went on a 7-1 rin to grab a 17-13 advantage. The lead was 20-17 when ONU finished the game with five consecutive points.

The Polar Bears raced to leads of 7-2, 10-3 and 15-4 in the third and final set when they his .425 with 18 kills and only one error.

Bluffton hit .110 for the match with 35 kills and 21 errors. Nine of those errors came on Ohio Northern blocks.

Senior Sydney Bapst (Grove City) had six kills and three blocks, senior McKenna Jordan (Toledo/St. Ursula) had six kills and sophomore Kiki Carle (Cincinnati/Mother of Mercy) had 33 kills in her third career start.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday when they host a tri-match with Defiance and Kenyon beginning at Noon at the ONU Sports Center.