Volleyball: #14 Ohio Northern (0-0 Overall) at Earlham (Ind.) (0-0 Overall)
Wednesday, September 1, 2021, 7 p.m. – Druley Performance Gym, Richmond, Ind.
Wednesday's Preview: Wednesday's game will serve as the season opener for both teams and is the start of Katie Kuhn's second season as head coach of the ONU volleyball program … Northern comes into the season ranked No. 14 nationally in the AVCA Division III poll and has been picked to finish third in the Ohio Athletic Conference by the league's coaches… The Polar Bears are coming off a delayed 2020 season that was played in the spring of 2021 during which they went 13-3 overall, including 8-0 at home … ONU closed last season with a third-place finish in the OAC and a No. 19 national ranking … The Polar Bears return 11 letter winners this fall led by senior Hannah Irmer, the 2020-21 OAC Libero of the Year … Irmer led the team and was fifth in the OAC with 309 digs last season … Other key returners include seniors Melina Woods and Kiki Carle; junior Hannah Hall; and sophomores Ava Ehlinger, Sydney Eggleton, Grace Irmer and Madeline Gawthrop … Woods led the team with 187 kills and 44 blocks in the spring … Carle tallied a team-high 618 assists and 23 aces last season and enters this season 409 assists shy of moving into 10th place on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … The Quakers enter the season after having been picked to finish third in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference by the conference's head coaches … Earlham is coming off a spring season in which it went 11-6 overall and 6-3 in conference play … The Quakers are led by senior outside hitters Caroline Mulvihill (1.77 kills/set, 30 total blocks in spring 2021) and Sarah Dickman (3.22 kills/set), senior middle hitter Giselle Mora (2.18 kills/set, 62 total blocks) and sophomore right side Maria Young (2.43 kills/set).
Returning ONU Statistical Leaders (2020 Stats):
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Woods | 187 | 1. | Woods | 44 | 1. | Carle | 23 | 1. | H.Irmer | 309 | 1. | Carle | 618 | ||||
| 2. | Eggleton | 150 | 2. | Gawthrop | 23 | 2. | Eggleton | 21 | 2. | G. Irmer | 151 | 2. | H. Irmer | 41 | ||||
| 3. | Ehlinger | 104 | 3. | Eggleton, Carle | 18 | 3. | H. Irmer | 18 | 3. | Hall | 133 | 3. | G. Irmer, Hall | 19 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 2-0 margin … The teams' most recent meeting was in 2019, which resulted in a 3-1 Polar Bear home win.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is entering her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 13-3 record, a winning percentage of .813.