Volleyball: Defiance (1-3 Overall) at #8 Ohio Northern (8-0 Overall)
Wednesday, September 15, 2021, 7 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Wednesday's Preview: The No. 8 Polar Bears enter Wednesday's home match with Defiance having won all eight of their games thus far, marking the team's best start to a season since 1999 when they were also 8-0 as part of a 10-0 start prior to their first loss … ONU's other best starts through its first eight games were 7-1 records in the 2000, 2004, 2009, 2012 and 2016 seasons … Northern is currently hitting .250 as a team with 13.2 kills, 18.8 digs, 12.0 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.5 aces per set … The Polar Bears are led by seniors Melina Woods (102 kills, .364 hitting percentage), Hannah Irmer (176 digs) and Kiki Carle (279 assists) along with freshman Taylor Baxter (33 blocks) and Rachel Jennings (21 aces) … Woods leads the Ohio Athletic Conference in hitting percentage and is fourth in kills … Irmer is tops in the OAC in digs … Carle ranks third in the conference in assists per set (9.00) … Baxter is second in the conference in both hitting percentage (.332) and blocks per set (1.03) … Jennings ranks second in the OAC in service aces per set (0.66) … Carle has 1,437 career assists, putting her 130 shy of moving into the top 10 in the program's all-time career leaders in that category … Irmer has 1,076 career digs, which is 332 short of moving into the top 10 in the program's all-time career leaders in that category … Defiance enters Wednesday's match having won one of its first four games, a four-set triumph over Anderson (Ind.) … The Yellow Jackets have fallen to Heidelberg, DePauw (Ind.) and Wilmington … Defiance has a team hitting percentage of .095 and is averaging 9.6 kills, 17.4 digs, 8.7 assists, 1.0 block and 2.4 aces per set … The Yellow Jackets are led by seniors Mackenzie Benham (35 kills) and Tre'Ana King (84 digs) and freshman Jamia Murray (8 aces) … Defiance head coach Brie Brenner is in her 10th season with a career record of 113-112 for a winning percentage of .502.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Woods | 102 | 1. | Baxter | 33 | 1. | Jennings | 21 | 1. | H.Irmer | 176 | 1. | Carle | 279 | ||||
| 2. | Baxter | 89 | 2. | Bowmar | 19 | 2. | Baxter | 7 | 2. | Jennings | 115 | 2. | Conrad | 59 | ||||
| 3. | Strozewski | 77 | Strozewski | 19 | 3. | Carle | 6 | 3. | Carle | 67 | 3. | Jennings | 18 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Defiance by a 40-0 margin … The teams' last meeting was in 2019 with ONU getting a 3-0 win at home.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 21-3 record, a winning percentage of .875.
