Volleyball falls in straight sets to No. 10 Otterbein

By: Andrew Korba

WESTERVILLE--The Ohio Northern women's volleyball team dropped a 25-15, 25-18, 25-23 decision to No.10 Otterbein Wednesday evening at the Rike Center.

The Cardinals improve to 18-6 overall and remain a perfect 4-0 in OAC play, while the Polar Bears fall to 18-5, 2-2.

Senior Ellen Grenert led the Polar Bears with nine kills and a hitting percentage of .261.

Freshman Kaitlann Hogrefe added seven kills and hit a team high .263.

Senior Kelsie Zumberger had 23 assists and freshman Ellie Gillespie led the team with eight digs.

Kristen Bennett registered a match high 11 kills to lead Otterbein.

ONU would open with an early 3-2 lead, but Otterbein would go on a 6-1 run to take a 8-4 lead.

The Cardinals would never trail again and win Set 1 by a 25-15 score.

The Polar Bears would start off the Set 2 strong building an early 4-1 lead.

But Otterbein responded with a 6-1 run to build a 7-5 lead.

Otterbein would use another 5-0 run to build an 16-8 lead and roll to the 25-18 victory.

Set 3 was tight throughout, with Northern clinging to a 12-9 lead midway through.

Otterbein would respond with a 6-1 run to take a 15-13 lead.

The Polar Bears would battle back to tie things at 16-16, before the Cardinals reeled off another 5-1 run.

ONU would trim the lead to 23-22 on an attack error.

Otterbein then benefitted from a attack error to expand their lead to 24-22.

A kill by Hogrefe for ONU cut the deficit to 24-23, but Otterbein would respond with a kill to clinch the match.

The Polar Bears had 34 kills for the match but hit just .159 while the Cardinals registered 43 kills and hit a solid .299.

Ohio Northern will be in action again on Fruday when they travel to Marietta for a 7 pm match.