Volleyball: Capital (2-5 Overall, 0-0 OAC) and Bluffton (7-9 Overall) at #12 Ohio Northern (10-1 Overall, 0-0 OAC)

Saturday, September 25, 2021, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio

| ONU Tri-Match Program (.pdf) |

Saturday's Preview: No. 12 Ohio Northern's games against Capital and Bluffton are part of a tri-match … Capital and Bluffton will face off at 1 p.m. … The Polar Bears' match against Capital marks both teams' first Ohio Athletic Conference game this season … Northern enters the weekend coming off of splitting last 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 and Woods (.339) lead the Ohio Athletic Conference in hitting percentage, and Baxter is second in blocks per set (1.00) … Irmer ranks fourth 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 … Capital enters play Saturday coming off of Tuesday's 3-1 home win over Wooster … CU has a team hitting percentage of .099 and is averaging 10.4 kills, 16.6 digs, 10.0 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.8 aces per set … Capital is led by seniors Delanie Nahikian (81 kills), Erin O'Connell (120 digs), Jenay Kocsis (108 assists) and Miranda Jordan (13 aces) and junior Caleigh Hamby (16 blocks) … Nahikian ranks fifth in the OAC in kills per set (3.24) and is tied for fourth in points per set (3.8) … Bluffton enters Saturday's tri-match having won 4 of its last 6 games, including Wednesday's 3-1 triumph at Wilmington … The Beavers are 1-3 against OAC teams this season … BU has a team hitting percentage of .142 and is averaging 11.0 kills, 15.4 digs, 9.7 assists, 1.8 blocks and 2.0 aces per set … The Beavers are led by seniors Cassidy Posey (165 kills) and Brooke Kleman (287 digs, 27 aces), junior Maddie White (333 assists) and sophomore Alysha Like (38 blocks).

ONU Statistical Leaders:

All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Capital by a 60-9 margin, including 21-2 at home … The teams' last meeting was in April as part of the delayed 2020 season with ONU winning 3-0 and 3-1 to sweep both games of a home doubleheader … The last time Capital defeated ONU was a 3-1 home win on Oct. 21, 2006 … Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Bluffton by a 68-13 margin … The Polar Bears and Beavers last met in 2019 with ONU sweeping a pair of games at Bluffton by 3-0 scores … The last time Bluffton defeated Ohio Northern was a 3-1 home win on Sept. 5, 2012.

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.