No. 17 Volleyball wins OAC Regular Season title with sweep of Mount Union

By Tim Glon

ADA — The No. 17-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team won its 27th Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season title with a convincing  25-15, 25-16, 25-18 victory over Mount Union in a winner-take-all showdown between the league's top two teams on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears (20-5 overall) win the conference title with an 8-1 mark, while the Purple Raiders fall to 20-6, 7-2.

Northern has now won 27 of the 38 OAC Regular Season titles since the league began sponsoring volleyball as a championship sport in 1984.

ONU will also be the top seed in next week's OAC Tournament. Northern will receive a first round bye and will host a semifinal match on Thursday at 7 pm.

Senior Melina Woods (Ada) and freshman Taylor Baxter (Bellevue) each had 10 kills and Baxter added nine blocks for Ohio Northern.

MtU was led by Heaven Bartell with 10 kills.

Mount Union scored the first six points of the match, but it was all Polar Bears from there as the hosts out-scored the Purple Raiders 75-43 the rest of the way.

Northern had runs of five consecutive points or more on five separate occasions, winning each set handily.

Northern hit .289 with 44 kills and 9 errors on 121 attacks, while Mount Union hit .047 with 30 kills and 24 errors on 127 attempts.