Volleyball: Marietta (18-6 Overall, 6-2 OAC) and Chicago (Ill.) (15-11 Overall) at Ohio Northern (15-8 Overall, 5-3 OAC)
Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022, 1 p.m. & 6 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Saturday's Preview: Ohio Northern closes out its regular-season schedule on Saturday hosting a tri-match with Ohio Athletic Conference foe Marietta and non-conference opponent Chicago (Ill.) … With a 5-3 record in conference play, the Polar Bears are currently in a four-way tie with Mount Union, Muskingum and John Carroll for third place in the OAC standings … The top six teams in the standings qualify for the OAC Tournament … ONU has secured a berth in the OAC Tournament, and the seeding will be announced on Saturday night … Northern is coming off Wednesday's 3-0 loss at Baldwin Wallace with set scores of 22-25, 18-25, 18-25 … Sophomore Erin Wagner led the Polar Bears with 14 kills … Sophomore Rachel Jennings tallied 14 digs, and sophomore Grace Conrad added 25 assists … Entering Saturday's game, Wagner ranks fourth in the OAC with 289 kills and is seventh in the conference with a .296 hitting percentage … Sophomore Sonia Dahlin and junior Ava Ehlinger rank second and third on the team with 219 and 188 kills, respectively … Jennings ranks fourth in the OAC with 441 digs … Conrad ranks sixth in the OAC with 651 assists … Sophomore Lauren James ranks third in the OAC with 71 blocks … Dahlin is tied for 10th in the OAC with 33 aces … Fifth-year senior Hannah Irmer has 1,542 career digs, which ranks ninth on the program's all-time list and is 17th among active Division III players … Irmer ranks fourth among active Division III players in sets played (467) and 10th in matches played (126) … Marietta is currently second in the OAC standings coming off Wednesday's 3-1 home loss to No. 18 Otterbein with set scores of 24-26, 25-19, 16-25, 14-25 … Junior Maggie Fellers led the Pioneers with 13 kills, and freshman Keira Shannon added 29 digs … Fellers ranks second in the OAC with a .367 hitting percentage and third in the conference with 298 kills … Fellers and Shannon are tied for second in the OAC with 39 aces … Freshman Emory Spitler ranks third in the OAC with 778 assists … Shannon ranks 10th in the OAC with 311 digs … Chicago (Ill.) received 82 voting points in this week's AVCA national poll and is the second team listed in the "Others receiving votes" category, putting the Maroons at No. 27 in the poll … The Maroons are coming off a 3-0 win over North Central (Ill.) with set scores of 25-13, 25-13, 25-22 … Senior Ellie Alden led the team with 13 kills, and sophomore Natalie Schildt added 19 digs … On the season, sophomore Maggie McInerney leads the team with 292 kills … Junior Maya Patel has a team-best 589 assists … Senior Maddie Ryan has a team-high 40 aces … Sophomore Julia Craig has a team-leading 399 digs … Freshman Diya Mishra leads the team in blocks with 92.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
1. | Wagner | 289 | 1. | James | 71 | 1. | Dahlin | 33 | 1. | Jennings | 441 | 1. | Conrad | 651 | ||||
2. | Dahlin | 219 | 2. | Dahlin | 58 | 2. | Jennings | 30 | 2. | H. Irmer | 232 | 2. | Hensley | 279 | ||||
3. | Ehlinger | 188 | 3. | Wagner | 51 | 3. | H. Irmer | 29 | 3. | G. Irmer | 177 | 3. | Jennings | 44 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Marietta by a 58-0 margin, including a 29-0 mark in Ada … ONU has swept Marietta 45 times in the all-time series … In the teams' last meeting, in 2021, ONU came away with a 3-0 road win with set scores of 25-19, 25-17, 25-18 ... ONU is 0-1 all-time against Chicago (Ill.).
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her third season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern … She owns a 50-17 career record for a winning percentage of .746 and is 26-7 (.788 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.