Volleyball: #13 Ohio Northern (13-1 Overall, 2-0 OAC) at Marietta (3-10 Overall, 0-0 OAC)
Saturday, October 2, 2021, 1 p.m. – Ban Johnson Arena, Marietta, Ohio
Saturday's Preview: Saturday marks No. 13 Ohio Northern's first road Ohio Athletic Conference game of the season after getting home wins over Capital and Muskingum … ONU has gotten four straight 3-set victories, the latest of which came over defending OAC Tournament champion Muskingum on Wednesday by scores of 25-9, 25-19 and 25-12 … The Polar Bears hit .429 against MU and were led by freshman Taylor Baxter (.647 hitting percentage, 11 kills, 5 aces) and Sydney Eggleton (.643 hitting percentage, 10 kills) … ONU has matched its second-best start in program history through 14 games, tying the 13-1 record from the 1979 season … Northern won a school-record 18 straight games to open the 1990 season … Northern is currently hitting .262 as a team with 13.4 kills, 17.8 digs, 12.3 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.6 aces per set … The Polar Bears are led by Baxter (147 kills, 51 blocks), seniors Hannah Irmer (267 digs) and Kiki Carle (375 assists) and freshman Rachel Jennings (31 aces) … Freshman Erin Wagner (.439), Baxter (.366) and senior Melina Woods (.313) rank first, second and fourth, respectively, in the OAC in hitting percentage, and Baxter is second in blocks per set (1.00) … Irmer ranks fourth in the OAC in digs and second in digs per set (5.24) … Carle sits fourth in the conference in assists per set (7.65) … Jennings is second in the conference in service aces per set (0.61) … Carle has 1,533 career assists, putting her just 34 shy of tying Kelly Smerekanich's 1,567 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Irmer has 1,167 career digs, which is 241 short of tying Molly Schrader's 1,408 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Marietta enters Saturday's match on a six-game losing streak coming off of Tuesday's 3-1 loss at Wooster … MC has a team hitting percentage of .153 and is averaging 9.9 kills, 13.0 digs, 9.3 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.7 aces per set … Sophomore Maggie Fellers leads the OAC in blocks per set (1.04) while freshman Jenna Szabelski ranks third in assists per set (8.14) and fourth in aces per set (0.49) … Freshman Mia Silva has a team-high 111 kills … Kristy Newman is in her fourth season coaching the Pioneers and entered the year with a 32-47 overall record at MC.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Baxter | 147 | 1. | Baxter | 51 | 1. | Jennings | 31 | 1. | H. Irmer | 267 | 1. | Carle | 375 | ||||
| 2. | Woods | 143 | 2. | Bowmar | 28 | 2. | Baxter | 20 | 2. | Jennings | 182 | 2. | Conrad | 152 | ||||
| 3. | Strozewski | 124 | 3. | Strozewski | 26 | 3. | Carle | 8 | 3. | Carle | 98 | 3. | Jennings | 30 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Marietta by a 57-0 margin, including 22-0 on the road … The teams' last meeting was a doubleheader in Ada in March as part of the delayed 2020 season, and the Polar Bears won both games by matching 3-1 scores … The last meeting in Marietta was in October 2019 with ONU winning 3-1.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 26-4 record (.867 winning percentage), including 15-3 (.833 winning percentage) in OAC play.