Volleyball: Kenyon (2-8 Overall) at #8 Ohio Northern (10-1 Overall)
Tuesday, September 21, 2021, 7 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
Tuesday's Preview: No. 8 Ohio Northern enters Tuesday's game coming off of splitting Saturday's doubleheader at the Wooster Ginny Hunt Kilt Classic, falling 3-0 to Denison before rebounding to sweep Wooster … Freshman Taylor Baxter was named to the event's All-Tournament Team after combining for 20 kills, 6 blocks and 5 aces in the two matches … ONU is off to its fourth-best start in school history … The Polar Bears won their first 11 games in 1979 and a school-record 18 games in 1990 and finished a perfect 13-0 in the 1968 season … ONU also started 10-1 in the 1970, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2000 and 2009 seasons … Northern is currently hitting .247 as a team with 13.1 kills, 18.3 digs, 12.1 assists, 2.1 blocks and 1.5 aces per set … The Polar Bears are led by seniors Melina Woods (127 kills), Hannah Irmer (221 digs) and Kiki Carle (320 assists) along with freshmen Taylor Baxter (42 blocks, .340 hitting percentage) and Rachel Jennings (24 aces) … Baxter (.340) and Woods (.339) lead the Ohio Athletic Conference in hitting percentage, and Baxter is second in blocks per set (1.00) while Woods is fourth in kills (127) … Irmer ranks second in the OAC in digs … Carle sits fourth in the conference in assists per set (8.00) … Freshman Lauren James leads the OAC in blocks per set (1.11) over the course of 10 sets played … Jennings is second in the conference in service aces per set (0.57) … Carle has 1,478 career assists, putting her just 89 shy of tying Kelly Smerekanich's 1,567 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Irmer has 1,121 career digs, which is 287 short of tying Molly Schrader's 1,408 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Kenyon enters Tuesday's match on a four-game losing streak after falling to #20 Transylvania (Ky.) and Defiance in a doubleheader Saturday at Ohio Wesleyan's Bishop Invitational … The Ladies have a team hitting percentage of .136 and are averaging 10.7 kills, 16.2 digs, 9.7 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.8 aces per set … Kenyon is led by juniors Macy Reimbold (102 kills), Maya Sapsford (.367 hitting percentage), Ellie Luciani (145 digs), Jac Cousineau (152 assists) and Paige Milhon (41 blocks) … Kenyon is 0-2 against OAC teams this season after falling to Marietta and Otterbein.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Woods | 127 | 1. | Baxter | 42 | 1. | Jennings | 24 | 1. | H.Irmer | 221 | 1. | Carle | 320 | ||||
| 2. | Baxter | 119 | 2. | Bowmar | 28 | 2. | Baxter | 14 | 2. | Jennings | 144 | 2. | Conrad | 111 | ||||
| 3. | Strozewski | 94 | 3. | Strozewski | 23 | 3. | Carle | 7 | 3. | Carle | 84 | 3. | Jennings | 24 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Kenyon by a 21-1 margin … The teams' last meeting was in 2019 with ONU sweeping Kenyon at home for its fourth victory in what would be a 10-game win streak that season … Kenyon's lone win over Ohio Northern was a 2-0 sweep on Nov. 1, 1988.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 23-4 record, a winning percentage of .852.