Volleyball falls 3-1 at John Carroll

By Wes Mayberry

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — The Ohio Northern volleyball team dropped its first conference game of the season Saturday afternoon, falling 17-25, 22-25, 25-17, 21-25 to John Carroll at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

The Blue Streaks improve to 16-6 overall and 3-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference while dropping the Polar Bears to 14-6 overall and 4-1 in the OAC.

The win was JCU's first over ONU since 2001, as the Polar Bears had won 26 straight games against the Blue Streaks.

Sophomore Sonia Dahlin (Minnetonka, Minn.) led the way for the Polar Bears with 15 kills to go with nine apiece from junior Kaidie Carstensen (Raymond/Fairbanks) and sophomore Erin Wagner (Massillon/Perry) and eight from junior Ava Ehlinger (New Carlisle/Tecumseh).

Sophomore Rachel Jennings (Novi, Mich.) tallied 23 digs, and sophomore Grace Conrad (Somerset/Sheridan) added 23 assists.

Cassi Calamunci and Kendra Dziubinski paced JCU with 19 and eight kills, respectively.

The opening set was tightly contested early on. Holding an 11-10 lead, JCU scored four straight points to create some separation, but ONU fought back to within one, 16-15.

The Blue Streaks responded with a 9-2 run to win the set 25-17.

The teams played to an 18-all tie in the second set, and JCU again put together a strong closing stretch for a 25-22 victory.

Northern answered with a 16-8 run to open the third set. That stretch included three kills from Wagner, two kills from sophomore Lauren James (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) and two kills and two aces from Dahlin.

JCU scored the next three points, but the Polar Bears were able to stretch their lead to as many as nine points before closing out the 25-17 victory on a kill from Wagner.

ONU carried that momentum into the fourth set, opening up a 10-4 lead. But an 8-2 JCU run knotted the score at 12-all.

Kills from Wagner and Ehlinger bookended three straight JCU attack errors that put the Polar Bears up 17-13, but the Blue Streaks again fought back to tie the score at 18-all. That was part of a larger 12-4 JCU scoring run that gave the Blue Streaks the 25-21 victory to win the match.

ONU hit .124 for the match with 46 kills and 24 errors on 178 attacks, while the Blue Streaks hit .201 with 54 kills and 22 errors on 159 attacks.

The Polar Bears return to action on Wednesday hosting OAC foe Wilmington at 7 p.m.