No. 18 ONU perfect on first day of Wittenberg Border Battle

By Steve Wright

SPRINGFIELD – Every healthy member for the No. 18 Ohio Northern Polar Bears saw the court as they swept both No. 10 Calvin (Mich.) and Alma (Mich.) on Day 1 of the Border Battle at the HPER Center on the campus of Wittenberg.

ONU improved its record to 7-4 on the season with the two victories.

Senior Laura Vuyk and junior Samantha Markham recorded 12 and 11 kills, respectively, against Calvin in a three-game sweep 30-28, 30-23, 30-23 in the first match.

Vuyk did not commit a hitting error in the match and posted a .387 hitting percentage to go along with 14 digs, two total blocks and an ace.

Markham only had one error with a .556 hitting percentage and one block.

Junior setter Katie Weininger dished out 44 assists and had three aces for ONU in the victory.

In addition to Vuyk’s back row play, sophomores Mandi Fought had 26 digs, Liz Decima added 12 digs and Renee Berry had nine digs.

Decima also had a career high four aces on the match.

Northern displayed a balanced offensive attack as freshman Melissa Goodman had nine kills, sophomore Liz Schnelle had eights kills and freshman Abby Schaller had seven kills.

On the match, the Polar Bears had 11 aces with only four service errors.

All of the Polar Bears got a chance to play against Alma in the second contest.

Schnelle was the only Northern player to reach double-digit kills with 10 while Schaller and Vuyk each had eight.

On defense, Fought had 18 digs and Decima recorded eight.

In Game 3, Vuyk led the offense with four kills, sophomore Lindsey Pruneski added three while Berry, Schnelle, freshman Kelly Smerekanich and freshman Alex Christian each had two kills.

Smerekanich recorded 11 assists as the setter in Game 3.

Sophomore Micaela Nauman helped in Game 3 with one kill, one ace and one block.

The Polar Bears will look to remain undefeated in the Border Battle tomorrow against Hope (Mich.) at 10 am and Adrian (Mich.) and 2 pm.