No. 5 Volleyball wins pair of four-set matches to go 2-0 on Day 1 of Wittenberg Border Battle
Submitted by s-wright.3 on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 6:35pm.
Kelsie Zumberger
By Steven Wright
| Alma Box | Calvin Box | Tournament Site |
SPRINGFIELD - The No. 5 Ohio Northern volleyball team won two 3-1 contests Friday afternoon on Day 1 of the Border Battle hosted by Wittenberg, beating Alma (Mich.) 25-12, 25-22, 25-27, 25-16 and No. 10 Calvin (Mich.) 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-22.
With the victories, the Polar Bears are now 11-1 on the year, while head coach Kate Witte sits at 499 wins over her 19-year career.
Northern was led by freshman setter Kelsie Zumberger who averaged a double-double on the day and had an impressive .476 hitting percentage.
In the first match of the day against the Scots, Zumberger had 41 assists and nine digs with six kills and no errors on nine attempts.
Against the Knights in the second match, she was again error free on her attacks with four kills on 12 attempts. She also tied a career-high with 45 assists and reached double figures with 12 digs.
Senior defensive specialist Liz Decima also had her best day of the season, with 14 digs against Alma and 12 digs against Calvin. Prior to today, her season-high was eight digs.
In Match 1, senior All-American Liz Schnelle led the offense with 19 kills, while junior All-OAC selection Abby Schaller chipped in with a season-high 13 kills.
Schaller had set her previous season-high one match earlier against Bluffton on Tuesday with 12 kills.
Junior Alex Christian had eight kills against Alma and followed that up with a season-high 11 kills against Calvin.
Schnelle again reached the double figures plateau with 17 kills against CC.
Sophomore libero Kasey Roeser continued to solidify the defense with 22 digs and 13 digs against Alma and Calvin, respectively.
Senior Renee Berry also added to the Polar Bear defense with 14 digs in each match, and sophomore Nicole Howard tied a season-high with 10 digs against Calvin.
Senior middle hitter Lindsey Pruneski was also a force for the Polar Bears against the Knights with eight kills and three total blocks.
Witte will look to earn her 500th career win tomorrow on Day 2 of the Border Battle when the Polar Bears play No. 8 Hope (Mich.) at Noon before playing Edison Community College at 4 pm at the HPER Center.