Volleyball: #17 Ohio Northern (22-5 Overall) at NCAA III Tournament Waverly Regional
Friday, November 12, 2021, 5:30 pm (CST) v #11 Colorado College – Levick Arena, Waverly, Iowa
Saturday, November 13, 2021, 5 pm (CST) v #4 Waverly (Iowa)/Cornell (Iowa) – Levick Arena, Waverly, Iowa
Sunday, November 14, 2021, 2 pm (CST) v TBA – Levick Arena, Waverly, Iowa
This Weekend's Preview: No. 17 Ohio Northern will travel west to compete in the Waverly, Iowa, Regional of the NCAA Division III Tournament ... The Polar Bears will face #11 Colorado College in the First Round on 5:30 pm (CST) on Friday ... With a victory, ONU would then play either #4 Wartburg (Iowa) or Cornell (Iowa) on Saturday at 5 pm (CST) in the Second Round ... The Regional Finals are slated for Sunday at 2 pm (CST) … Other First Round opponents on Friday include #22 Wisconsin-Stevens Point against #21 Bethel (Minn.) and #3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps playing Aurora (Ill.) ... The Polar Bears defeated #24 Otterbein 3-0 last weekend to claim its latest OAC Tournament title and the OAC's automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament … ONU is making its 33rd NCAA Tournament appearance in the 41-year history of the event and boasts a 38-32 record in its 32 previous NCAA Tournament appearances ... Northern reached the championship game in 1989 and the Final Four in 2008 … Senior Melnia Woods and freshman Taylor Baxter were named First Team All-OAC, senior Kiki Carle and freshman Rachel Jennings were named Second Team All-OAC and freshman Erin Wagner was an Honorable Mention All-OAC honoree this year ... Woods leads the team with 293 kills, which ranks seventh in the OAC … Baxter has an OAC-leading 115 blocks and ranks ninth in the conference in kills (277) … Baxter (.342) and Woods (.331) rank third and fourth, respectively, in the OAC in hitting percentage … Jennings ranks second in the conference in aces (50) and fifth in digs (483) … Carle ranks fourth in the OAC with 739 assists, and her 1,897 career assists rank eighth all-time at ONU … Senior Hannah Irmer has 1,305 career digs, which is 103 short of tying Molly Schrader ('99-'02) at 1,408 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Jennings' 50 aces are the fourth-most by a freshman in program history, and her 483 digs are fourth-most by a freshman in program history … Baxter's 115 blocks are fourth-most by a freshman in program history … Colorado College (29-5) received an at-large selection after finishing runners-up in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season standings and had a third place finish in the SCAC Tournament ... The Tigers are making the program's 30th overall appearance in the NCAA tournament. CC, which advanced to the Elite 8 in 2009, owns a 21-29 all-time NCAA tournament record ... Senior Georgia Mullins was selected as the SCAC Co-MVP and leads the SCAC with a .338 hitting percentage, 463 kills, 574 points and 1.05 blocks per set ... Sophomore Jenny Jenkins was named the SCAC Setter of the Year.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
1. | Woods | 293 | 1. | Baxter | 115 | 1. | Jennings | 50 | 1. | Jennings | 480 | 1. | Carle | 743 | ||||
2. | Baxter | 277 | 2. | Eggleton | 47 | 2. | Baxter | 29 | 2. | H. Irmer | 404 | 2. | Conrad | 295 | ||||
3. | Strozewski | 212 | 3. | Strozewski | 46 | 3. | Carle | 23 | 3. | Carle | 180 | 3. | Jennings | 68 |
All-Time Series: The series between Ohio Northern and Colorado College is tied at 1-1 ... The two teams have met twice in San Antonio, Tex., with ONU winning 3-0 in 1997 and CC winning 3-0 in 2000 ... ONU has not played Wartburg (Iowa), Cornell (Iowa) or Bethel (Minn.) ... Northern is 4-0 against Aurora (Ill.), 0-1 against CMS and is 0-2 against UWSP.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 35-8 record, an .814 winning percentage.