No. 11 Volleyball gets 18 kills from senior McKenna Jordan in 4-set victory over Baldwin Wallace

By Tim Glon

ADA — Senior McKenna Jordan (Toledo/Saint Ursula) had 18 kills to lead No. 12-ranked Ohio Northern to a 25-17, 25-27, 25-20, 25-11 victory over Baldwin Wallace on Tuesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears (15-3 overall, 3-0 Ohio Athletic Conference) extended their winning streak to nine matches with the win.

Senior Sydney Bapst (Grove City) added 14 kills and senior All-American Chelsea Huppert (Bremen, Ind.) had 12 kills for ONU.

The Polar Bears went on a 6-1 run midway through Set 1 to grab a 20-14 lead. BW pulled within 21-17 but two kills by Huppert sparked a 4-0 run to give ONU the opening set.

In set two, ONU led 10-5 early, but Baldwin Wallace rallied to tie the match at 21-all. Northern served for the win up 25-24, but BW collected the final three points on three straight kills to even the match at 1-1.

Again Northern went on a 5-0 run to snap a 10-10 tie and take a 15-10 lead in the third set. The lead was 23-20 when back-to-back kills by Huppert and Jordan ended the set at 25-20.

Another 5-0 ONU gave the hosts an 11-6 lead in Set 4. The lead was 15-10 when the Polar Bears exploded to score 10 of the match's last 11 points, including the final six in a row, to win the match three sets to one.

The Yellow Jackets (18-2, 1-1) were led by Ivy Earl with a match-high 20 kills.

Junior Katie Wade (Battle Creek, Mich./Harper Creek) dished out 46 assists and senior McKenna Hostetler (Plain City/Alter) had 21 digs for ONU. Freshman Madison Kern (Loveland/Mount Notre Dame) tied her career-high with eight blocks to go with four kills for the hosts.

As a team, Ohio Northern hit .264 for the match with 55 kills and only 16 errors on 148 attempts, while Baldwin Wallace hit .131 with 56 kills and 33 errors on 175 attempts.

The Polar Bears will travel to San Antonio, Tex., Friday and Saturday for four matches at the Trinity (Tecx.) Invitational, including a showdown with host and No. 10-ranked Trinity Friday night at 7 pm (CDT).

Ohio Northern will also play Mary Hardin-Baylor (Tex.) on Friday afternoon and will face Rowan (N.J.) and California-Santa Cruz on Saturday before coming home.