No. 4 Volleyball wins OAC opener in three sets over John Carroll

Liz Schnelle

By Steven Wright

| Box Score |

ADA - The No. 4-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team opened up its Ohio Athletic Conference schedule with a 25-12, 26-24, 25-22 sweep over John Carroll Friday evening at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 19-1 overall and 1-0 in the OAC, while the Blue Streaks are now 8-12, 0-1.

With the victory, Ohio Northern extends its winning streak to 12 consecutive matches.

Senior All-American was the only player in match to reach double figures in kills with 16. She also had an impressive .441 hitting percentage with only one hitting error on the night.

Sophomore and reigning OAC Player of the Week Kasey Roeser was great on defense with 26 digs in just three sets. She added an ace as well.

John Carroll played the defending OAC champions extremely well, building early leads in each of the three sets.

The Blue Streaks had a 4-1 lead in Set 1 before the Polar Bears went on a 9-1 run to take control of the set.

John Carroll again started quickly in Set 2 with a 6-1 lead.

The Polar Bears were down 18-13 before going on a 7-2 run that was capped off by a Lindsey Pruneski kill to knot the set for the first time at 20-20.

JCU again kept the pressure on with two straight points to take a 22-20 advantage, but Northern showed its toughness and got five kills down the stretch to claim the Set 2 victory.

In similar fashion to the first two sets, the Polar Bears found themselves down early 6-3 in the final set.

JCU kept the lead midway through Set 3 at 13-11, but Ohio Northern again found a way by going on a 4-0 run and take the lead 15-13 lead that it would never surrender.

Junior Abby Schaller and senior Renee Berry each had eight kills, while junior Alex Christian had seven kills. Berry contributed 12 digs also.

Pruneski was error free on the night with five kills on 10 attempts and had one solo block.

Freshman setter Kelsie Zumberger recorded a double-double with 33 assists and 10 digs on the evening, while chipping in one ace and one block.

Ohio Northern will travel to No. 25 Heidelberg on Tuesday at 7 pm.