No. 6 Volleyball sweeps John Carroll in OAC Tournament quarterfinal match

Abby Schaller

By Steven Wright

| Box Score | OAC Tournament Site |

ADA - The No. 6 Ohio Northern volleyball team defeated John Carroll in a three-set sweep Tuesday evening at the ONU Sports Center to earn a berth into the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals.

The Polar Bears (26-3) are the No. 3 seed in the tournament, while the Blue Streaks (12-17) were the No. 6 seed.

Junior outside hitter Abby Schaller had her most efficient match of the season with eight kills, recording a season-high hitting percentage at .538 (8-1-13).

Her previous season-high was .409 against Hope (Mich.) at the Border Battle on September 19.

Senior All-American Liz Schnelle was dominating on offense with a match-high 19 kills on 31 attempts with just three errors (.516).

She is now the first player in ONU and OAC history to surpass the 2,100-Kill mark with 2,106 for her career.

The Polar Bears as a team had a very productive offensive evening with 50 kills and a .345 hitting percentage while holding the Blue Streaks to just 30 kills and a .144 hitting percentage.

Contributing to the offense was senior Renee Berry with nine kills and senior Lindsey Pruneski with six kills and no errors on 13 attempts (.462).

Berry also nearly had a double-double with 10 digs on the night.

Leading the defense was senior defensive specialist Liz Decima who had a match-high 12 digs.

Also recording double-digit digs was sophomore libero Kasey Roeser with 10.

Roeser has reached the double-figure dig total in all 29 of Ohio Northern's matches this season and extends her total to 64 consecutive matches with at least 10 digs. She has reached that total in 66 of her 68 career matches.

All four top seeds were victorious on Tuesday evening, setting the field for the OAC Tournament semifinals at Heidelberg on Friday.

No. 3 seed Ohio Northern will play No. 2 seed Mount Union at 5 pm on Friday, while No. 1 seed Heidelberg will host No. 4 seed Otterbein at 7 pm

The winners of those matches will play each other at 2 pm on Saturday to crown the OAC Tournament Champion.

Ohio Northern is looking to win its fourth consecutive OAC Tournament Championship and its sixth in the last seven years.