Volleyball opens season with a pair of sweeps over Heidelberg and No. 16 Calvin (Mich.)
Submitted by s-wright.3 on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 1:37pm.
Renee Berry
By Steven Wright
| Heidelberg Box | Calvin (Mich.) Box |
ADA - The No. 6-ranked Ohio Northern volleyball team got off to a great start by sweeping both Heidelberg and No. 16 Calvin (Mich.) at the ONU Invitational Friday evening at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears go to 2-0 on the year and will look to win the ONU Invitational tomorrow.
Heidelberg is now 2-1 on the year, while Calvin is 1-1.
ONU beat Heidelberg 25-18, 25-14, 25-22 in the first match.
In the nightcap against Calvin, the Polar Bears took the match 25-20, 25-21, 25-20.
ONU and HU were both solid on defense, recording 78 and 77 digs in the match as a team, respectively.
Senior right side hitter Renee Berry tied a career high with 21 digs in the contest. She also added six kills, four assists and four blocks to lead the way.
Sophomore libero Kasey Roeser led the defense with 23 digs and recorded one ace.
Senior All-American Liz Schnelle had a team-high eight kills, junior Abby Schaller had seven, and junior Alex Christian and sophomore Chelsie Timmons each had six.
Freshman setter Kelsie Zumberger dished out 28 assists in her collegiate debut and nearly recorded a double-double with nine digs.
In the first set, the score was 15-15 before Northern went on a 10-3 aided in large part by five Heidelberg errors.
Set 2 also remained tightly contested in the beginning and was tied 12-12.
Over the final 13-2 run of the second set, Timmons led the offense with three kills and Schaller added two.
Northern led 23-20 in the final set, but the Student Princes scored two straight to cut the lead to one.
Schaller and Schnelle then recorded back-to-back kills to seal the victory for the Polar Bears.
Schnelle again led the offense with 12 kills against the Knights and had a .321 hitting percentage.
Berry recorded double-digit digs for the second consecutive game with 10. She also had 9 kills to give her a total of 15 kills and 31 digs on the day.
Again anchoring the defense was Roeser with 15 digs.
Ohio Northern will be searching for its 12th ONU Invitational title tomorrow. The Polar Bears will face No. 8 Southwestern (Texas) at 10 am and Thomas More (Ky.) at Noon.