By Gary Petit

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — Freshman Abby Schaller posted a career-high 17 kills to lead the No. 12 Ohio Northern volleyball team over OAC-foe John Caroll Friday evening at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.

The Bears won in four games, 30-15, 26-30, 30-24 and 30-17.

The win was the 15th straight for the Polar Bears and improves them to 19-4 on the season and an OAC-best 5-0. JCU falls to 10-14 and 1-4 in the OAC.

Schaller led all hitters with a .484 hitting percentage. She also added three digs and a block assist. Junior Samantha Markham chipped in with 15 kills for the Bears while senior Laura Vuyk and sophomore Liz Schnelle each added 13 kills.

Vuyk also picked up her 16th double-double of the season with 15 digs. Sophomore Mandi Fought led the team with 21 digs.

Junior setter Katie Weininger had another solid night leading the ONU offense with 53 assists.

In game one, ONU opened up a 16-10 lead before going on a 14-5 run to end the first game 30-15. The Polar Bears defense set the tone early as JCU could manage just two points off of their own serve.

The Blue Streaks responded in game two, as they raced out to a 15-9 lead and traded side outs the rest of the game to even the match at 1-1.

Game three was simliar to game one for Northern. The teams were tied 14-14 before the Bears finished the game on a 16-10 run to take control of the match.

Game four was all ONU, as Northern dominated throughout, scoring the last five points to end the game 30-17 and win the match 3-1.

ONU returns to action next Tuesday when it hosts Heidelberg at 7 pm in the ONU Sports Center.