Volleyball advances to semifinals of OAC Tournament after Baldwin Wallace withdraws from all postseason competition

October 30, 2012

By Tim Glon

ADA — The Ohio Northern volleyball team has advanced to the semifinals of the 2012 Ohio Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament after Baldwin Wallace self reported NCAA violations and withdrew all of its teams from OAC and NCAA postseason competition for the entire academic year on Tuesday.

The No. 3-seeded Polar Bears (24-5 overall) were slated to host the sixth-seeded Yellow Jackets on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the OAC Tournament and will now advance to the semifinals Friday night at a home of the highest seeded quarterfinal winner.

A statement from the Ohio Athletic Conference explains the situation:

"Due to recent mistakes in the application of NCAA regulations to the awarding of financial aid to a small percentage of student-athletes, Baldwin Wallace is self-reporting to the NCAA and has removed itself from all OAC and NCAA postseason this academic year, while they continue to work with the NCAA moving forward.

"For our immediate purposes, we are not re-seeding or undoing existing preparations going on with other matchups. The chips will fall as if BW played and lost their current postseason matchups. They will forfeit their position in the tournaments."

This affects the OAC Men's and Women's Soccer Tournaments, as well.

In the women's tournament, sixth-seeded John Carroll will advance to the finals and will play at the winner of Wednesday's Ohio Northern/Otterbein senifinal match on Saturday.

In the men's tournament, third-seeded Wilmington advances to the semifinals and will face second-seeded John Carroll on Friday.