Three Polar Bears reach career milestones as No. 5 Volleyball sweeps Otterbein

Liz Schnelle

By Steven Wright

| Box Score |

ADA - Liz Schnelle, Kasey Roeser and Renee Berry all reached career milestones in the No. 5 Ohio Northern volleyball team's 25-21, 25-16, 25-22 sweep over Otterbein Tuesday evening at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears are now 21-2 overall and 3-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, as the Cardinals fall to 17-6, 1-3.

Schnelle led the way with 16 kills and a .519 hitting percentage on the evening. With that performance, she becomes the only player in ONU history to eclipse the 2,000-kill mark.

Schnelle currently sits at 2,007 kills, just 19 kills away from tying Capital's Nici Workman (2000-03) for the most all-time by an OAC player.

Roeser led the defense with 21 digs on the night and now has 1,167 for her career, which puts her in the Top 10 digs list at ONU in ninth place.

She is just four digs away from taking sole possession of eighth place in just her sophomore season.

Berry was the only other Polar Bear to reach double-digit digs on the night with 14, surpassing the 1,000-dig plateau with 1,003 for her career.

Setter Kelsie Zumberger had a solid night distributing the volleyball, dishing out 30 assists while chipping in three kills (no errors) and nine digs.

Zumberger also led the Polar Bears on the night by tying a career high with three aces, while Abby Schaller had two aces for the 11th time this season.

Otterbein controlled the match early by taking a 16-10 Set 1 lead before Ohio Northern went on an 8-1 run to take the lead.

The Cardinals were able to take the lead for the last time at 20-19.

Northern then went on a 6-1 run thanks to two kills by Schnelle, a kill by Zumberger, an ace apiece by Roeser and Schaller and a hitting error by OC.

The Polar Bears cruised to a Set 2 victory before things got interesting again in Set 3.

Otterbein held a 14-12 advantage in the set before making several hitting errors that led to a 7-1 Northern run.

ONU seemed to have taken control at 22-18, forcing an OC timeout, but the Cardinals scored the next three points to cut the deficit to 22-21.

Northern was then able to close out Set 3 and the match on a kill by Lindsey Pruneski, a kill by Schaller and an attack error by Otterbein.

Northern will compete again on Saturday when it travels to Muskingum to continue OAC play at 1 pm.