Volleyball sweeps area-rival Bluffton 25-16, 25-19, 25-10

By Tim Glon

BLUFFTON — Sophomore McKenna Jordan (Toledo/Saint Ursula) had a match-high 14 kills to lead the Ohio Northern volleyball team to a 25-16, 25-19, 25-10 victory at area-rival Bluffton on Wednesday night at Sommer Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 7-2 on the season, while the Beavers fall to 4-5.

In the opening set, Ohio Northern led 15-14 before closing the set on a 10-2 run.

Northern jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second set and led comfortably throughout to go up two sets to none.

The Polar Bears raced to another big early lead in Set 3, scoring seven of the first nine points and eventually took a 13-4 lead. The Beavers would get no closer than nine points the rest of the match as ONU won its eight consecutive contest in the series with Bluffton.

Sophomore Chelsea Huppert (Bremen, Ind.) had 11 kills and sophomore Sydney Bapst (Grove City) added 10 kills for ONU.

Ohio Northern hit a solid .286 for the match with 45 kills and only 11 errors, while Bluffton hit .098 with 29 kills and 17 errors.

"Bluffton played with more heart and emotion that we did tonight," ONU head coach Kate Witte said. "That said, we did get a road win against a quality opponent. But we will have to be more focused and play better this weekend against two top-10 teams and a third outstanding opponent."

The Polar Bears return to action this weekend at the Wittenberg Fall Classic, where they will face No. 9 Washington (Mo.) on Friday and Clarkson (N.Y.) and No. 3 Wittenberg on Saturday.