Schnelle becomes ONU's All-Time Kills Leader, as #4 Volleyball finishes Washington (Mo.) Invite 3-1

Liz Schnelle

By Steven Wright

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ST. LOUIS, Mo. - With 39 kills on the day, senior All-American Liz Schnelle became Ohio Northern's all-time kills leader with 1,794 for her career, as the No. 4-ranked ONU volleyball team went 1-1 on the Day 2 of the Washington (Mo.) National Invitational Saturday afternoon at the WU Field House.

The Polar Bears (8-1) dropped the first match of the day to No. 17 Wisconsin-Whitewater 18-25, 25-16, 25-20, 15-25, 11-15 before handing No. 10 Pacific Lutheran (Wash.) its fourth loss of the weekend 25-19, 25-23, 25-19.

Set 1 against Whitewater was the first set ONU had dropped on the season.

Washington (Mo.) defeated Whitewater in three later in the afternoon, creating a three-way tie for first place. ONU, WW and WU all finished the tournament with identical 3-1 records.

Schnelle accomplished the milestone with a season-high 21 kills against W-W and 18 kills against PLU.

She passes Hannah Kanuckel (2001-04), who ended her illustrious career with 1,788 kills as an outside hitter for the Polar Bears.

The win against Pacific Lutheran was the 496th career victory for 19th-year head coach Kate Witte, who is now just four away from reaching the 500-Win plateau.

Schnelle and freshman setter Kelsie Zumberger were both selected to the All-Tournament Team for their performances this weekend.

Along with leading the offense against Whitewater, Schnelle turned in a career-high five aces and added five total blocks in the match.

Three other Polar Bears nearly reached double figures in kills, including senior Lindsey Pruneski who turned in a career-high nine kills.

Senior Renee Berry also had nine kills along with 16 digs, while junior Abby Schaller was the third Polar Bear to blast nine kills.

In the back row, sophomore Nicole Howard  had a season-high 10 digs, while sophomore Kasey Roeser was one dig away from tying a season high with 29.

Another ONU career high was turned in by Zumberger who dished out 45 assists in the match.

She followed that up with another 40+ assist match against Pacific Lutheran with 41.

Schnelle added three more aces against PLU, while junior Alex Christian helped out the offense by tying a season high with 10 kills.

Berry again had a solid performance on the right side with nine kills, 15 digs and five assists.

The Polar Bears will be in action again on Wednesday when they travel to area-rival Bluffton at 7 pm.