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Ohio Northern University

Volleyball downs Heidelberg in OAC Tournament Quarterfinals 20-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-23

Volleyball downs Heidelberg in OAC Tournament Quarterfinals 20-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-23
Box Score
November 4, 2014

By Tim Glon 

TIFFIN -- Fifth-seeded Ohio Northern edged fourth-seeded Heidelberg 20-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-23 in the quarterfinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament Tuesday night at Sieberling Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears improve to 19-9, while the Student Princes see their season come to an end with a 19-12 record.

Ohio Northern will advance to the OAC Tournament semifinals Thursday at top-seeded and No. 11-ranked Mount Union.

Northern hit .228 for the match, but hit .310 in the final two sets to pull away for the win.

Freshman Hannah Davis led ONU with 13 kills, while junior Kaitlann Hogrefe and sophomore Claire Heitkamp added 10 kills each.

Sophomore Ashley Borchers dished out 41 assists and sophomore Kristin Sessler had seven kills and a team-high 22 digs.

"I am very pleased with our effort tonight," ONU head coach Kate Witte said. "We settled down in the second set and did a nice job of being aggressive. We did a great job on service receive and limited our errors while still being assertive. We did a nice job of survive and advance and now we have another big challenge ahead of us at Mount Union on Thursday.

In the opening set, ONU managed only six kills, but took advantage of 10 HU errors to hang around in a 25-20 loss.

The Polar Bears got their offense untracked in Set 2 and used a 4-1 run, keyed by kills from junior Ellie Gillespie, Hogrefe and Borchers, to break a 17-all tie and take a 21-18 advantage.

Northern would then score four of the last five points to post a 25-21 win and even the match at one set apiece.

In Set 3, ONU jumped out to a 7-2 lead, then used a 3-0 run to extend its advantage to 14-7. The lead grew to as large as 24-13 before ONU closed out the set 25-15.

The Polar Bears hit .353 for the set with 12 kills and no errors.

In the fourth set, ONU went on a 4-0 run to take a 16-10 lead.

After a timeout, HU closed to within 17-15, but kills by Heitkamp, Davis and Heitkamp again extended the lead to 20-15.

HU pulled to within 24-23, but a kill by Borchers iced the game for ONU. Northern hit .280 in the set with 18 kills and only four errors.

Heidelberg hit .157 with 59 kills and 31 errors. Sarah Parker led the Student Princes with a match-high 20 kills, while Jamie Kluding added 12 kills.