No. 14 Volleyball falls in tight 5-set match at No. 6 Calvin (Mich.), sweeps Millikin (Ill.) on first day of Calvin Invitational

By Tim Glon

| Calvin Invitational tournament site |

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Sophomore Sydney Eggleton (Southfield, Mich./Farmington) had a career-high 17 kills and senior Melina Woods (Ada) and added 15 kills as the No. 14 Ohio Northern volleyball team opened play at the Calvin Invitational with a 25-22, 18-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-11 loss at No. 6 Calvin (Mich.) on Friday afternoon at the Van Noord Arena.

The Polar Bears (18-3 overall) then ended day one's competition with a 25-23, 25-14, 25-20 win over Millikin (Ill.) at the Hogenboom Gym on Calvin's campus Friday night.

Against Calvin, freshman Emma Strozewski (Lakeville, Minn./North) added 11 kills and freshman Taylor Baxter (Bellevue) had 10 kills for ONU.

Calvin was led by Heidi Westra with a match-high 31 kills and a .418 hitting percentage to go with 14 digs. Gabriella Kellogg added 18 kills and Kelsey Smith added 14 kills for the Knights.

All five sets were close affairs, except in Set 2 when Ohio Northern closed the set on a 13-4 run to win 25-18.

CC won the opening set 25-22, but ONU answered with 25-18 and 25-23 wins in the next two sets.

Northern was on the verge of victory in set three, holding leads of 14-8 and 19-15, but Calvin answered with a 6-1 run to go up 21-20.

A kill by Woods tied the match at 22-22 and CC got three kills from Westra to end the set on a 3-1 run and even it at 2-2.

The Knights led 10-9 in the fifth set when back-to-back kills by Kellogg, made it 12-9.

A kill by Woods got ONU within 12-10, but two kills from Westra gave the hosts a 14-10 lead.

Strozewski had a kill to make it 14-11 and CC ended the match on a kill by Smith at 15-11.

Senior Kiki Carle (Cincinnati/Mother of Mercy) had 48 assists and freshman Rachel Jennings (Novi, Mich.) had 33 digs for ONU.

The Polar Bears hit .248 for the match with 58 kills and 18 errors on 161 attacks, while the Knights hit .268 with 78 kills and 27 errors on 190 attempts..280

In the match against Millikin, Woods had 16 kills and hit an impressive .652 to lead ONU.

Northern scored four of the final five points in the opening set to erase a 22-21 deficit to win 25-23. Woods had two kills and a block to spark the set-winning rally.

The Polar Bears raced to leads of 7-2 and 17-5 en route to a 25-13 win in set two.

ONU used a 6-1 run to take control of Set 3, grabbing an early 14-8 advantage.

MU climbed back within 23-20, but a pair of hitting errors by the Big Blue (17-8) ended the match.

Northern hit.280 with 42 kills and 14 errors on 100 attempts and Millikin hit .128 with 31 kills, 18 errors and 104 attacks.