Several earn All-OAC accolades as No. 8 Volleyball wins third consecutive OAC Tournament Championship

2008 OAC Volleyball Champions

By Steven Wright

| Box Score | Tournament Site |

ADA - The No. 8-ranked and top-seeded Ohio Northern volleyball team earned its third consecutive and 17th overall Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship with a 3-1 victory over No. 2-seed Heidelberg Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.

This marks the second year in a row that the Polar Bears (30-4) have defeated the Student Princes (30-7) in the OAC Tournament Finals.

ONU edged Heidelberg 25-14, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22 to pick up the victory and extend its win streak to 23 matches. One more win will tie ONU's longest win streak in school history of 24 set by the 1984 team.

Northern had three players with double-digit kills led by junior All-American Liz Schnelle with 23.

Senior Samantha Markham added 12 kills, while junior Renee Berry had her second consecutive double-double with 12 kills and 13 digs. Berry also tied a season high with five assists.

Senior All-American setter Katie Weininger also had a spectacular match by nearly earning a triple-double with 51 assists, nine digs and eight kills.

Junior Liz Decima played the defensive match of her life, tallying a career-high 20 digs, while freshman libero Kasey Roeser had a game-high 25 digs.

Northern jumped out to an early 1-0 set lead and looked to be in control of the match after scoring the final six points of Set 1.

In Set 2, neither team had a lead greater than three points, and with ONU up 22-20, Heidelberg called a timeout and responded with a 5-1 run to steal the set from the Polar Bears.

Set 3 was equally close until the score was knotted at 6-6. Northern then went on an 8-2 run to take a commanding 14-8 lead that it would never relinquish.

Heidelberg held a slim 21-20 advantage in the fourth set before Schnelle racked up four kills on ONU's next five points to give Northern a 25-22 decision and ultimately the OAC Tournament Championship.

As a team, ONU had a season-high 66 kills and 62 assists, which was two more kills and one more assist than the Polar Bears had against Heidelberg in the two team's first meeting this season.

In addition to the team success, several members of the volleyball team were awarded honors from the OAC.

Head coach Kate Witte was named OAC Coach of the Year for the sixth time in her career and the first time since 2002.

Northern's All-Americans also set OAC history, as Weininger and Schnelle were named Co-OAC Players of the Year. This is the first time the award has been shared and the seventh season in which a Polar Bear has won the award.

Markham and sophomore Abby Schaller were both selected Second Team All-OAC to round out the individual awards.

Northern will now move on to the NCAA III Regional Championships on Thursday. The time and location will be announced sometime late Sunday evening.