No. 11 Volleyball finishes 2nd in highly competitive Washington (Mo.) National Invitational

Chelsie Timmons

By Steven Wright

| WU Box Score | Central Box Score |

ST. LOUIS - The No. 11-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team finished second in the Washington (Mo.) National Invitational after splitting its two contests on Saturday and finishing with a 3-1 overall record on the weekend.

The Polar Bears (5-3) defeated No. 22-ranked Central (Iowa) 3-0 after falling in a tough three-set match against No. 2-ranked Washington earlier in the morning.

Freshmen Chelsie Timmons and Kasey Roeser each had career days against Central.

Timmons recorded 10 kills and a .529 hitting percentage in her first full match of action, while Roeser tallied a career-high 23 digs from the libero position.

All-American senior setter Katie Weininger also had a solid day, dishing out 32 assists against WU and 31 assists against Central. 

Weininger also recorded 12 kills on the day in only 24 attempts for a .500 hitting percentage.

Junior All-American Liz Schnelle had 23 kills on the day, moving into eighth place on the ONU all-time kills list with 1,188. She is now just five away from tying former All-American Diane Gehret for seventh all time.

Set 1 against Central was full of spurts for both teams. After Northern jumped out to a 3-0 lead, the Dutch answered back with four consecutive points of their own.

Central built a 10-7 lead before Northern scored eight in a row to recapture the lead at 15-10.

The Polar Bears held on for a 23-20 lead after back-to-back kills from Weininger before the Dutch cut the lead to one point at 23-22.

Northern scored the next point to have set point, but Central rallied for three straight to take the lead 25-24.

Schnelle tied the set with a kill before two monstrous blocks closed out the game for the Polar Bears 27-25.

Timmons and junior Renee Berry scored the 26th point with a block and Berry closed out the set with a straight-down block against a Central outside hitter.

ONU took control of both Sets 2 and 3, winning each by a score of 25-16.

Berry had a solid all-around match against the Dutch with seven kills, 10 digs, three total block and an ace.

In the morning match, the Polar Bears battled the defending national champions until the end, losing 25-22, 25-20, 29-27.

Northern could never close the gap in Sets 1 and 2, but came out very strong in Set 3 building an 18-11 lead.

WU showed its experience by not panicking and and scoring eight consecutive points to take a 19-18 advantage.

The teams battled back and forth for the duration, each having multiple set points, but WU proved too much for the Polar Bears.

Schnelle nailed 15 kills in the match, as Berry and sophomore Abby Schaller each recorded seven kills.

Roeser led the defense with 15 digs and fellow freshman Nicole Howard added 11 digs.

"I am very encouraged and excited about how much we improved both offensively and defensively this weekend," said 18th-year head coach Kate Witte. "I am really looking forward to our continued team improvement for the rest of the season."

Ohio Northern will return to action next weekend when it travels to Wittenberg to compete in the Border Battle on Friday and Saturday.