No. 12 ONU gains sole possesion of 1st place in OAC with sweep of Heidelberg

By Steven Wright

ADA — Three players for No. 12 Ohio Northern volleyball recorded double-digit kills and four players had double-digit digs en route to a three-game Ohio Athletic Conference-sweep over previously unblemished Heidelberg 30-21, 30-25, 30-27 Tuesday evening at the ONU Sports Center.

The win secures Northern’s eighth consecutive 20-win season and 16th straight this season as the Polar Bears improve to 20-4 overall and 6-0 OAC.

The Student Princes suffer their first conference loss and drop to 21-6, 6-1.

Melissa Goodman tied a career high with 13 kills to go along with two blocks.

Liz Schnelle with 17 kills and Laura Vuyk with 15 kills were the other two Polar Bears reaching double digits.

Vuyk also recorded her third consecutive double-double, and 17th this season, with 11 digs.

The defense was led by libero Mandi Fought with 25 digs while Liz Decima and Katie Weininger recorded 16 and 13, respectively.

Weininger dished out 56 assists on the night as the Polar Bears had at least 20 kills in each game.

ONU had one run of at least seven unanswered points in each of the three games.

Goodman led the way in Game 1 with six kills, including two during a 9-0 Polar Bear run that built the lead to 25-13. Vuyk contributed three kills during the same nine-point span.

In Game 2, with the score 9-7 in favor of Heidelberg, ONU rattled off seven in a row thanks to two kills from Abby Schaller and a kill apiece from Goodman, Weininger and Schnelle.

The Student Princes kept the score close and cut the lead to 28-25 before Northern scored the last two points of the game.

The Polar Bears again used an early eight-point rally to go up 14-5 and take control of Game 3 only to have Heidelberg come within two points at 29-27.

“Tonight was a great atmosphere provided by the fans from both teams,” said head coach Kate Witte. “Heidelberg is a very good team but we were able to stay in system offensively and that made the difference.”

Northern will host Marietta on Friday at 7 pm and then Capital on Saturday at 1 pm.