Volleyball: Ohio Wesleyan (1-3 Overall) at Ohio Northern (2-1 Overall)
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, 7 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Tuesday's Preview: Tuesday's game marks the 2022 home opener for Ohio Northern … Northern received the 28th-most votes in Tuesday's AVCA Division III poll with 83 ... ONU was ranked No. 23 in the preseason poll ... The Polar Bears are coming off a three-game set in the Denison Invitational where they went 2-1 … ONU won 3-2 over Centre (Ky.) and 3-0 over Houghton (N.Y.) before falling 3-2 to Denison … Junior Ava Ehlinger had a career-high 18 kills in the win over Centre, while freshman setter Caroline Hensley tallied 46 assists in her first collegiate start … Fifth-year senior Melina Woods led ONU with 12 kills against Houghton … Sophomore Erin Wagner had a team-best 15 kills against Denison … Woods is tied for fifth in the Ohio Athletic Conference with 36 kills, Wagner is eighth with 34 kills, and Ehlinger is ninth with 32 kills … Woods ranks fourth in the OAC with a .373 hitting percentage … Hensley ranks second in the OAC with 82 assists … Fifth-year senior Hannah Irmer and sophomore Sonia Dahlin are tied for second in the OAC with 10 service aces … Dahlin ranks fifth in the OAC with 11 blocks … Irmer ranks fifth in the OAC with 47 digs … Irmer has 1,357 career digs, which is 51 shy of moving into the top 10 on the program's all-time career digs list … After Tuesday's game, ONU will next play a three-game set in the Berry (Ga.) Invitational on Friday and Saturday against No. 6 Berry (Ga.), Covenant (Ga.) and Oglethorpe (Ga.) … North Coast Athletic Conference member Ohio Wesleyan has lost three of its first four games in 2022 and is coming off a 3-0 defeat to Earlham at the Charlie Wrublewski Invitational at Mt. St. Joseph on Friday … The Battling Bishops are coming off a 2021 season in which they finished 13-14 overall … Through four games this season, sophomore Claire Solberg and junior Melissa Murray lead the team in kills with 15 and 13, respectively … Solberg leads OWU with nine blocks … Junior Abby Thierauf has a team-best 38 assists, and junior Neah White has a team-high 16 digs.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
1. | Woods | 36 | 1. | Dahlin | 11 | 1. | Dahlin | 10 | 1. | H. Irmer | 47 | 1. | Hensley | 82 | ||||
2. | Wagner | 34 | 2. | James | 10 | H. Irmer | 10 | 2. | Jennings | 37 | 2. | Conrad | 41 | |||||
3. | Ehlinger | 32 | 3. | Woods | 7 | 3. | G. Irmer | 4 | 3. | G. Irmer | 24 | 3. | H. Irmer | 9 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Ohio Wesleyan by a 22-2 margin … In the teams' last meeting, in 2021, ONU won 3-2 at OWU … The Polar Bears took that five-set match by scores of 18-25, 22-25, 25-20, 26-24, 15-10.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her third season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern … She owns a 37-10 career record for a winning percentage of .787 and is 21-4 (.840 winning percentage) in Ohio Athletic Conference games … She was named OAC Coach of the Year and AVCA Region 7 Coach of the Year in 2021 after leading the Polar Bears to OAC Regular Season and Tournament championships.