No. 14 Volleyball holds off upset-minded Baldwin Wallace in 5-set thriller

By Tim Glon

ADA — Freshman Taylor Baxter (Bellevue) had 15 kills and seven blocks to lead the No. 14 Ohio Northern volleyball team past Baldwin Wallace 26-28, 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 15-11 on Wednesday night at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 15-1 overall and remain in first place in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 4-0 mark after posting their sixth consecutive victory.

The Yellow Jackets fall to 15-5, 1-2.

Freshman Emma Strozewski (Lakeville, Minn./North) added 13 kills, senior Melina Woods (Ada) had 12 kills and freshman Erin Wagner (Massillon/Perry) had 10 kills.

Freshman Rachel Jennings (Novi, Mich.) tallied a career-high 41 digs and senior Kiki Carle (Cincinnati/Mother of Mercy) added 38 assists for ONU.

Ivy Earl led BWU with a match-high 21 kills.

Northern started slow in the opening set, committing six service errors, as BW built a 21-16 lead.

ONU closed strong to take a 23-22 lead on a kill by Baxter, but the guests would score four of the set's final five points to rally for a 28-26 win.

The Polar Bears raced to leads of 10-5 and 18-10 in set two and held on to even the match at one set each,

Trailing 20-19 in Set 3, ONU scored five straight points to take a 24-20 lead. Sophomore Kassie Bowmar (Sunbury/Big Walnut) scored three of ONU's final six points on kills to spark the rally.

Bowmar ended the match with season-highs of eight kills and six blocks.

Neither team led by more than four points at any time in an even fourth set. Northern led 21-18 when four consecutive kills by Ivy gave BW a 22-21 lead.

Another Ivy kill made it 24-22 and her sixth kill of the rotation gave BWU the equalizer and sent the match to a fifth and deciding set.

The two teams traded 3-0 runs as the set was tied at 6-all. Northern used a 5-2 run to go up 12-9 and kills by Bowmar and Baxter gave ONU a 14-10 lead.

An attack error by Ivy ended the match at 15-11 as ONU hit .400 in the final set.

The Polar Bears hit .220 for the match with 71 kills and 22 errors on 223 attacks, while the Yellow Jackets hit .151 with 62 kills and 28 errors on 225 attempts.

Ohio Northern returns to the court on Wednesday with a 7 pm road match at Wilmington.