Volleyball: Ohio Northern (5-2 Overall) at Bluffton (5-3 Overall)
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, 7 p.m. – Sommer Center, Bluffton, Ohio
Wednesday's Preview: Ohio Northern opens play this week with a non-conference game at Bluffton on Wednesday at 7 p.m. … ONU received the 38th-most votes in this week's AVCA Division III poll with 36 ... The Polar Bears are coming off a three-game set at the Berry (Ga.) Invitational … Northern fell 3-0 to No. 11 Berry on Friday but rebounded for victories of 3-1 over Covenant (Ga.) and 3-0 over Oglethorpe (Ga.) on Saturday … Fifth-year senior Melina Woods had a team-high eight kills against Berry … Four Polar Bears tallied double-digit kills against Covenant in effort led by sophomore Erin Wagner with 16 … Junior Kaidie Carstensen led the way with 16 kills against Oglethorpe … Sophomore Sonia Dahlin was named to the All-Tournament Team after tallying a combined 27 kills in the three games … Entering the week, Wagner is tied for fourth in the Ohio Athletic Conference with 79 kills, and Woods is 10th with 71 kills … Carstensen ranks third in the OAC with a .364 hitting percentage, and Woods is sixth with a .326 hitting percentage … Sophomore Grace Conrad ranks seventh in the OAC with 164 assists, and freshman Caroline Hensley is ninth with 119 assists … Dahlin is fourth in the OAC with 18 service aces … Sophomore Lauren James ranks is tied for seventh in the OAC with 22 blocks … Fifth-year senior Hannah Irmer ranks eighth in the OAC with 97 digs … Irmer has 1,407 career digs, which is one shy of moving into the top 10 on the program's all-time career digs list … Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference member Bluffton enters Wednesday's game riding a two-game losing streak that followed a five-game win streak … The Beavers went 1-2 in their Sommer Center Spiketacular on Friday and Saturday, defeating Pitt-Bradford 3-2 before falling to Baldwin Wallace and John Carroll by 3-1 scores … Through eight games, junior Alysha Like leads the team with 64 kills to go with 53 each from sophomore Chloei Barnett and senior Maddie White … White has a team-best 180 assists … Freshman Mackenzie Jones leads the team with 26 aces and 104 digs … Freshman Jenna Woods has a team-high 19 blocks.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Wagner | 79 | 1. | James | 22 | 1. | Dahlin | 18 | 1. | H. Irmer | 97 | 1. | Conrad | 164 | ||||
| 2. | Woods | 71 | Dahlin | 19 | H. Irmer | 12 | 2. | Jennings | 72 | 2. | Hensley | 119 | ||||||
| 3. | Dahlin | 61 | 3. | Wagner | 14 | 3. | Jennings | 7 | 3. | G. Irmer | 56 | 3. | Jennings | 12 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Bluffton by a 69-13 margin … In the teams' last meeting, in 2021, ONU earned a 25-14, 25-14, 25-14 sweep of Bluffton in Ada.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her third season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern … She owns a 40-11 career record for a winning percentage of .784 and is 21-4 (.840 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.