Volleyball: Ohio Northern (10-4 Overall) at #12 Wittenberg (11-3 Overall)

Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, 7 p.m. – Pam Evans Smith Arena, Springfield, Ohio

Wednesday's Preview: Ohio Northern closes out its September schedule on Wednesday at No. 12 Wittenberg … The Polar Bears are coming off a 1-2 showing in the Mount Saint Joseph Invitational, falling 3-0 to Transylvania (Ky.) and 3-1 to Christopher Newport and winning 3-1 over Mount Saint Joseph … Sophomore Erin Wagner led Northern with a combined 38 kills in the three games … Sophomore Rachel Jennings paced the team with a combined 80 digs, including a season-high 34 against Transylvania … Jennings' performance earned her Ohio Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second straight week and fourth time in her career … The Polar Bears received eight voting points in this week's national AVCA Poll ... Entering the week, Wagner is tied for second in the Ohio Athletic Conference with 172 kills and is tied for third with a .338 hitting percentage … Jennings ranks sixth in the OAC with 236 digs … Fifth-year senior Melina Woods ranks fifth in the conference with a .326 hitting percentage … Sophomore Grace Conrad ranks fifth in the OAC with 408 assists … Sophomore Lauren James is tied for eighth in the OAC with 38 blocks … Sophomore Sonia Dahlin is tied for 10th in the OAC with 23 service aces … Fifth-year senior Hannah Irmer has 1,462 career digs, which ranks 10th on the program's all-time career digs list … North Coast Athletic Conference member Wittenberg enters Wednesday's game ranked No. 12 nationally in the AVCA Division III Poll … The Tigers are coming off Saturday's 25-15, 25-16, 25-9 sweep of Wooster … Graduate student Katie Hiestand and junior Tyler Linkhart led WU with 18 and 11 kills, respectively … Through 14 games, Linkhart (192), Hiestand (155) and sophomore Kendall Robertson (120) have recorded 100-plus kills for the Tigers … Robertson has a team-high 33 blocks … Sophomore Ava Hampton has a team-best 162 digs … Junior Mack Ricketts has a team-high 480 assists.

ONU Statistical Leaders:

All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Wittenberg by a 33-31 margin … In the teams' last meeting, ONU earned a 28-26, 13-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-8 win over the Tigers in the 2021 ONU Invitational.

Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her third season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern … She owns a 45-13 career record for a winning percentage of .776 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.