Friday-Saturday, October 22-23, 2021 – Van Noord Arena and Hoogenboom Gym, Grand Rapids, Mich.
| Calvin Invitational site | | Ohio Northern tournament page |
Tournament Preview: No. 14 Ohio Northern is set to face 3 of the top 6 teams in the country in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll as part of the 5-team Calvin (Mich.) Midwest Invitational on Friday and Saturday … The Polar Bears will play 2 games each day … On Friday, ONU will face No. 6 Calvin (Mich.) at 3 p.m. at Van Noord Arena and Millikin (Ill.) at 7 p.m. at Hoogenboom Gym … On Saturday, Northern will face No. 4 Hope (Mich.) at 11 a.m. at Hoogenboom Gym and No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) at 1:30 p.m. at Van Noord Arena … The Polar Bears are taking a break from Ohio Athletic Conference play coming off of Wednesday's 26-28, 25-20, 25-22, 17-25, 14-16 loss at Heidelberg … Senior Melina Woods and freshman Taylor Baxter each finished with 17 kills in the match to go with 43 assists from senior Kiki Carle and 42 digs from freshman Rachel Jennings … ONU currently sits in second place in the OAC standings behind No. 20 Otterbein … Northern is currently hitting .255 as a team with 13.4 kills, 18.2 digs, 12.5 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.7 aces per set … Baxter leads the team with 204 kills, which is tied for ninth in the OAC, and has an OAC-high 77 blocks while Jennings has a team-high 41 aces, which ranks second in the OAC … Senior Hannah Irmer leads ONU with 323 digs, which ranks seventh in the OAC … Freshman Erin Wagner (.402), Baxter (.367) and Woods (.305) rank first, second and fifth, respectively, in the OAC in hitting percentage… Carle ranks fifth in the OAC in assists with 515 and needs 99 more to reach 1,772 career assists to tie Jill Jolliff ('85-'88) for ninth place on ONU's all-time list … Irmer has 1,223 career digs, which is 185 short of tying Molly Schrader ('99-'02) at 1,408 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Jennings needs 5 aces and 93 digs to break into the top five all-time in those categories for freshmen in program history … Baxter needs 15 blocks to move into fifth place all-time for freshmen in that category … No. 6 Calvin (Mich.) enters the tournament riding a 4-game win streak after falling 3-2 to No. 4 Hope (Mich.) on Oct. 2 … Calvin has 2 wins over OAC teams this season, sweeping both Otterbein and Muskingum … Millikin (Ill.) has also won 4 straight games … No. 4 Hope (Mich.) fell 3-2 at No. 22 Chicago (Ill.) on Saturday but rebounded to sweep Adrian (Mich.) on Wednesday … Hope swept its lone OAC opponent thus far this season, Muskingum, on Sept. 17 … No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps has won all 20 of its games thus far with 15 of those victories being 3-0 sweeps … CMS has defeated No. 3 Trinity (Texas), No. 12 Emory (Ga.) and No. 19 UC Santa Cruz (Calif.) by 3-1 scores this season.
ONU Statistical Leaders:
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Kills |
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Blocks |
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Aces |
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Digs |
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Assists |
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| 1. |
Baxter |
204 |
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1. |
Baxter |
77 |
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1. |
Jennings |
41 |
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1. |
H. Irmer |
323 |
|
1. |
Carle |
515 |
| 2. |
Woods |
197 |
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2. |
Bowmar |
40 |
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2. |
Baxter |
23 |
|
2. |
Jennings |
315 |
|
2. |
Conrad |
210 |
| 3. |
Strozewski |
154 |
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3. |
Strozewski |
32 |
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3. |
Carle |
17 |
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3. |
Carle |
141 |
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3. |
Jennings |
45 |
All-Time Series: All time, Ohio Northern is 11-18 against Calvin (Mich.), 4-1 against Millikin (Ill.) and 17-9 against Hope (Mich.). Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between ONU and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 30-5 record (.857 winning percentage), including 19-4 (.826 winning percentage) in OAC play.
