Volleyball wraps up regular season with sweep at Muskingum

By Tim Glon

NEW CONCORD — The Ohio Northern volleyball team wrapped up its regular season with a 25-17, 25-16, 25-23 sweep at Muskingum Friday night at the Recreation Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 18-8 overall and finish with a 7-2 Ohio Athletic Conference record, while the Muskies see their season end at 10-16 overall and 1-8 in OAC play.

ONU will be the No. 3 seed in the OAC Tournament and will host Baldwin Wallace on Tuesday at 7 pm.

Check back with ONUSports.com Saturday night for the complete OAC Tournament schedule.

Sophomore Ellie Gillespie led the Northern offense with 11 kills and 11 digs.

Freshman Kristin Sessler and freshman Kelli Weininger had seven kills each while Sessler added a team-best 23 digs.

The Muskies were led by Katie Hunt with 12 kills.

"I thought we played very well in the first two sets," ONU head coach Kate Witte said. "Give Muskingum credit, they played hard on every point for the entire match. Any road win in the OAC is a good win, so we are happy. Now it's time to focus on the OAC Tournament next week."

Northern built a 19-10 lead in Set 1 and went on to the 25-17 win.

In Set 2, the Polar Bears again led big early, but MU battled back to within 18-14.

ONU had the answer though, scoring seven of the last nine points to win the set 25-16.

Set 3 was a tight affair with Muskingum rallying to tie the set at 22-22.

But ONU would score three of the final four points to win the match.

The Polar Bears hit .211 for the match with 39 kills, while the Muskies hit .174 for the match with 41 kills.