No. 23 Volleyball splits doubleheader with Albion (Mich.), No. 5 Calvin (Mich.) in 5-set thrillers on final day of ONU Invitational

ADA — The No. 23 Ohio Northern volleyball team split a doubleheader with Albion (Mich.) and No. 5 Calvin (Mich.) on the second and final day of the 44th Annual ONU Invitational on Saturday. Both matches went the full five sets. The Polar Bears defeated the Britons 25-19, 23-25, 25-27, 25-17, 16-14 Saturday morning and fell to Calvin in a tightly contested 25-20, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 16-18 match in the afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: #23 Ohio Northern (9-2), Albion (Mich.) (7-4), #5 Calvin (Mich.) (9-1)
• Venue: ONU Sports Center - Ada, Ohio

ONU v Albion Match

• Junior Erin Wagner (Massillon/Perry) led the Polar Bears with 21 kills while hitting .357 and adding four blocks.
• Senior Ava Ehlinger (New Carlisle/Tecumseh) had 17 kills, 17 digs and two blocks and hit .244.
• Junior Lauren James (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) tallied 15 kills and six blocks while hitting .462.
• Junior Rachel Jennings (Novi, Mich.) had a team-best 40 digs and five aces.
• Junior Grace Conrad (Somerset/Sheridan) and sophomore Caroline Hensley (Loveland/Bishop Fenwick) led ONU in assists with 31 and 27, respectively.
• ONU hit .257 with 75 kills, and Albion hit .208 with 58 kills.

ONU v Calvin Match

• James and Ehlinger led ONU in kills with 15 and 14, respectively.
• James hit .483 in the match and added four blocks.
• Jennings finished with 26 digs and four aces.
• Conrad had 29 assists and nine digs, and Hensley added 21 assists and six aces and six digs.
• The Polar Bears hit .222 with 64 kills, and the Knights hit .249 with 65 kills.
• ONU trailed just once, at 4-3, in the opening set, before putting together an 8-0 run en route to the 25-20 victory.
• Calvin scored four of the first five points in the second set and later led 18-12 before ONU got within two, 20-18. The Knights ended the set on a 5-3 run.
• After falling 25-18 in the third set, the Polar Bears forced a fifth set by scoring the final two points of the fourth on kills from James and Wagner to turn a 23-all tie into a 25-23 win.
• ONU led by as many as three, 11-8 in the fifth set before the Knights reponded to tie the score at 11-all. After five straight tie scores, Calvin scored the final two points of the match on kills from Avery Ekkens and Emma Ekblaw to claim the victory.
• Both teams hit well in the fifth set, as the Knights hit .500 with 14 kills and one error and the Polar Bears hit .462 with 14 kills and two errors.

Notables

• Calvin won the ONU Invitational with a 3-0 record, and ONU was second with a 2-1 mark. Albion and Case Western Reserve were each 1-2, and Marietta was 0-2.
• James' 15 kills in both matches Saturday were single-game career highs.
• Ehlinger had a team-best 31 total kills on Saturday, followed by James (30) and Wagner (29).
• ONU is undefeated (9-0) against unranked teams in 2023.
• Sophie Windover is now 9-2 in her first season as head coach of the ONU volleyball team.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears return to action on Friday at the Otterbein Quad with games against No. 22 Mt. St. Joseph at 6 p.m. and No. 16 Transylvania (Ky.) at 8 p.m.