Volleyball: Baldwin Wallace (15-4 Overall, 1-1 OAC) at #14 Ohio Northern (14-1 Overall, 3-0 OAC)
Wednesday, October 6, 2021, 7 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
| Baldwin Wallace Program (.pdf.) |
Wednesday's Preview: No. 14 Ohio Northern enters Wednesday's match riding a five-game win streak with all five victories being 3-0 sweeps … The Polar Bears are coming off of Saturday's 25-19, 25-17, 25-18 sweep at Marietta … ONU hit .313 in the match and was led by freshmen Taylor Baxter (10 kills, 3 blocks, 2 aces) and Rachel Jennings (15 digs, 2 aces) to go with 8 kills each from senior Melina Woods and sophomore Sydney Eggleton … ONU has matched its second-best start in program history through 15 games, tying the 14-1 record from the 1979 season … Northern won a school-record 18 straight games to open the 1990 season … Northern is currently hitting .265 as a team with 13.4 kills, 17.8 digs, 12.4 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.7 aces per set … The Polar Bears are led by Baxter (157 kills, 54 blocks), seniors Hannah Irmer (274 digs) and Kiki Carle (399 assists) and freshman Rachel Jennings (33 aces) … Freshman Erin Wagner (.448), Baxter (.377) and Woods (.308) rank first, second and fourth, respectively, in the OAC in hitting percentage, and Baxter is tied for first in blocks per set (1.00) … Freshman Lauren James is fourth in the OAC in blocks per set (0.89) … Irmer ranks third in the OAC in digs per set (5.07) … Carle sits fourth in the conference in assists per set (7.67) … Jennings is second in the conference in service aces per set (0.61) … Carle has 1,557 career assists, putting her just 10 shy of tying Kelly Smerekanich's 1,567 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Irmer has 1,174 career digs, which is 234 short of tying Molly Schrader's 1,408 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Baldwin Wallace enters Wednesday's match having lost just once since Sept. 4, going 13-1 in that span with the only defeat being a home sweep to Otterbein on Sept. 29 … The Yellow Jackets are coming off of Saturday's 3-0 win at Capital … BW has a team hitting percentage of .154 and is averaging 12.0 kills, 17.1 digs, 11.1 assists, 0.9 blocks and 2.4 aces per set … Seniors Cecelia Hamisch and Ivy Earl lead the OAC in kills with 226 and 199, respectively … Freshman Lauren Gardner ranks third in the OAC in digs (311), while senior Angela Dunn is third in aces per set (0.56) and freshman Lauren Reid is second in assists per set (9.62) … Kacie Ehinger is in her third season coaching the Yellow Jackets and entered the year with a 37-12 overall record at BW.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Baxter | 157 | 1. | Baxter | 54 | 1. | Jennings | 33 | 1. | H. Irmer | 274 | 1. | Carle | 399 | ||||
| 2. | Woods | 151 | 2. | Bowmar | 30 | 2. | Baxter | 22 | 2. | Jennings | 197 | 2. | Conrad | 159 | ||||
| 3. | Strozewski | 129 | 3. | Strozewski | 27 | 3. | Carle | 12 | 3. | Carle | 104 | 3. | Jennings | 30 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Baldwin Wallace by a 69-15 margin, including 32-4 at home … The teams' last meeting was a doubleheader in Berea in March as part of the delayed 2020 season, and the Polar Bears won both games by scores of 3-0 and 3-2 … The Polar Bears have won 14 of the past 15 matchups with the Yellow Jackets dating back to 2012 with their only loss in that span coming on the road in October 2018.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 27-4 record (.871 winning percentage), including 16-3 (.842 winning percentage) in OAC play.