By Steven Wright

ADA – No. 11-ranked in the nation and top-seeded Ohio Northern used 11 kills and a .385 hitting percentage in the decisive fifth game to edge fifth-seed Capital Friday evening to cap off an exciting night of Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal action at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears (26-6) defeated the Crusaders (21-10) 25-30, 30-27, 26-30, 30-27, 15-9 and clinched a spot in the OAC Tournament finals.

ONU also earned the OAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament by making it to the tournament finals as the outright OAC regular season champion.

Senior Laura Vuyk had five kills in Game 5 and 21 for the match to lead Ohio Northern, while freshman Melissa Goodman tallied three of her 15 kills in the game.

With ONU down 2-1 and trailing 27-26 in Game 4, Goodman tied the game with a kill. Sophomore Liz Schnelle and Abby Schaller then combined for a straight down block on a middle attack to give the Bears a 28-27 advantage.

Northern forced Capital to commit a hitting error on the next point and sophomore Mandi Fought ended Game 4 with an ace that hit an unexpecting Capital player standing on the baseline.

The Polar Bears used the momentum gained at the end of Game 4 to help jump start an early 3-0 lead in Game 5 that led to an 8-4 advantage at the switch.

With ONU leading 13-8, Capital middle hitter Jesse Hampson and Vuyk went kill-for-kill to end the match at 15-9.

Hampson equalled Vuyk’s kill total of 21 to go along with nine total blocks while Allison Hostetler and Sarah Gallik chipped in 16 and 14 kills, respectively for the Crusaders.

Every Polar Bear hitter recorded double-digit kills as Schnelle had 19 while Schaller and Samantha Markham each had 12.

Schnelle has 505 kills on the year and is now 25 kills away from breaking the ONU single-season record of 529.

She also eclipsed the 1,000-kill mark and has 1,003 for her career.

Junior setter Katie Weininger did a great job spreading the ball around with 75 assists on 82 kills for the Polar Bears while also tallying a team-high three aces.

Fought led the way on defense with a career-high 38 digs while Vuyk and sophomore Liz Decima had 18 apiece.

Sophomore Renee Berry also made her way into the double-digit dig column with 11.

The ONU-Capital match was the second semifinal of the evening as No. 3 seed Heidelberg upset No. 2 seed Mt. Union 26-30, 30-27, 30-17, 27-30, 15-13 earlier in the day in another exciting five-game match.

Ohio Northern will look to win its 16th OAC Tournament Championship against Heidelberg on Saturday at 2 pm in the ONU Sports Center.