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Ohio Northern University

Sessler's 14 kills, 21 digs lead Volleyball in 5-Set loss at Heidelberg in a battle of upper division OAC foes

Sessler's 14 kills, 21 digs lead Volleyball in 5-Set loss at Heidelberg in a battle of upper division OAC foes
Box Score
October 22, 2013

By Tim Glon

TIFFIN — The Ohio Northern volleyball team fell in an exciting 25-20, 16-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-6 Ohio Athletic Conference battle at league-leading Heidelberg Tuesday night at Sieberling Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears fall to 15-8 overall and remain in third place in the OAC with a 4-2 mark, while the Student Princes improve to 14-13 overall and 6-0 in the OAC.

Heidelberg scored 13 straight points in the fifth and deciding set to stay unbeaten and tied for first place with No. 9-ranked Mount Union in league play.

Freshman Kristin Sessler had 14 kills and 21 digs , sophomore Ellie Gillespie had 11 kills and sophomore Kaitlann Hogrefe added 10 kills for ONU.

Heidelberg was led by Sarah Parker with 19 kills and Amber Welfle with 18 kills.

A kill by sophomore Heather Saunier and a hitting error by HU gave ONU a quick 2-0 lead in Set 5, but Heidelberg would score the next 13 points to take command of the match.

In the first set, Northern jumped to a quick 8-3 lead on the strength of a pair of kills by Sessler.

HU pulled within 10-9 with a 6-2 run and eventually went ahead 17-16 with three consecutive points.

A 4-0 run broke an 18-all tie and gave Heidelberg a 22-18 lead, en route to the 25-20 set win.

In Set 2, Northern used a 10-1 run to take a commanding 14-15 lead and a kill by Sessler gave the Polar Bears the set 25-16.

The Polar Bears used a 5-0 run and followed that with a 4-0 run to take a 13-8 lead in Set 3.

Leading 14-11, ONU went on a 6-1 run, keyed by kills from Hogrefe, freshman Claire Heitkamp, Gillespie and freshman Kelli Weininger, to go up 20-12.

A kill by Hogrefe finished the 25-21 set victory.

But HU rallied in Set 4, gradually coming from 14-12 behind to win 25-23.

With the set tied at 22-all, Welfle and Parker had kills to make it 24-22.

A kill by Gillespie made it 24-23, but Jamie Kluding got a kill to end the set.

ONU hit .165 with 60 kills in the match, while HU hit .162 with 62 kills in the evenly-played contest.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday with a 1 pm contest against John Carroll on Senior Day in the final regular season home match of the season.