Volleyball: Mount Union (21-6 Overall) at #17 Ohio Northern (20-5 Overall) – OAC Tournament Semifinals
Thursday, November 4, 2021, 7 p.m. – ONU Sports Center, Ada, Ohio
| Match Program (.pdf) | OAC Tournament Page |
Thursday's Preview: Thursday night's contest pits No. 1 seed Ohio Northern against No. 4 seed Mount Union in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals … The other semifinal features No. 2 seed Otterbein hosting No. 3 seed Muskingum … ONU and Otterbein enter the tournament ranked No. 17 and 24, respectively, in this week's AVCA Poll … The winners of the semifinal games will play for the championship Saturday at 2 p.m., which will be hosted by the highest remaining seed … ONU defeated Mount Union 25-15, 25-16, 25-18 on Saturday to clinch its 27th OAC regular-season title and received a bye to the tournament semifinals … Senior Melina Woods (10 kills) and freshman Taylor Baxter (10 kills, 9 blocks) led the way for ONU in that game … Northern has now won 27 of the 38 OAC regular-season titles since the league began sponsoring volleyball as a championship sport in 1984 … Woods leads the team with 268 kills, which ranks eighth in the OAC … Baxter has an OAC-leading 105 blocks and ranks ninth in the conference in kills (253) … Freshman Rachel Jennings has earned two straight OAC Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week awards and ranks second in the conference in aces (47) and sixth in digs (451) … Baxter (.333), Woods (.323) and freshman Erin Wagner (.262) rank third, fourth and eighth, respectively, in the OAC in hitting percentage … Senior Kiki Carle ranks fourth in the OAC with 684 assists, and her 1,842 career assists rank eighth all-time at ONU … Senior Hannah Irmer has 1,284 career digs, which is 124 short of tying Molly Schrader ('99-'02) at 1,408 for 10th on the program's all-time leaderboard in that category … Jennings' 47 aces are tied for the fourth-most by a freshman in program history, and her 451 digs are fifth-most by a freshman in program history … Baxter's 105 blocks are fifth-most by a freshman in program history … Mount Union is making its 32nd appearance in the OAC Tournament and has a 27-28 record in the event … The Purple Raiders have won the tournament three times (2011, 2013, 2014) and have 2 runner-up finishes (1999, 2012) … Mount Union enters Thursday's game coming off of Tuesday's 23-25, 25-15, 22-25, 25-15, 15-11 win over No. 5 seed Heidelberg … Freshman Alexis Meyer ranks third in the OAC in blocks (81), and junior Alyssa Kasaris ranks third in digs (513) … Freshman Catherine Klopp ranks fourth in the OAC in blocks (74) … Freshman Heaven Bartell ranks sixth in the OAC in kills (300).
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Kills | Blocks | Aces | Digs | Assists | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Woods | 268 | 1. | Baxter | 105 | 1. | Jennings | 47 | 1. | Jennings | 451 | 1. | Carle | 684 | ||||
| 2. | Baxter | 253 | 2. | Bowmar | 43 | 2. | Baxter | 28 | 2. | H. Irmer | 384 | 2. | Conrad | 270 | ||||
| 3. | Strozewski | 196 | 3. | Strozewski | 41 | 3. | Carle | 21 | 3. | Carle | 168 | 3. | Jennings | 58 |
All-Time Series: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Mount Union by a 52-8 margin, including 23-2 in Ada and 9-1 in the OAC Tournament … The teams' last meeting was a 3-0 ONU home win on Oct. 30.
Head Coach Katie Kuhn: Kuhn is in her second season as the head women's volleyball coach at Ohio Northern with a 33-8 record, an .805 winning percentage.