Box Score
ALLIANCE, Ohio – The fourth-seeded Otterbein University volleyball team came up short Friday evening in its quest for back-to-back Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament championships, falling in three sets at top-seeded University of Mount Union in the semifinal round.
The Cardinals, raked No. 16 in the latest national poll, suffered the defeat by scores of 13-25, 22-25, 20-25 to fall to 26-7 on the season. The Cardinals will now wait and watch the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Selection Show on Monday morning, 11 a.m., to learn of their NCAA Tournament fate.
The 10th-ranked Purple Raiders (29-4) flew out of the gate, winning the first seven points of the first set before a service error helped put Otterbein on the board.
Mount Union extended its early lead to 11-1, forcing Cardinal Head Coach Monica McDonald to use her second and final timeout of the set. Otterbein won three-straight points out of the timeout to settle in, but the damage had been done as the Raiders easily took the opening frame.
The second set saw an early 4-4 tie before Mount Union eventually opened a six-point lead, at 14-8, midway through the game. Otterbein continued to fight, battling to within 23-20 late in the set before the Raiders held on for a 2-0 lead.
Otterbein fell behind 6-2 to open the third stanza, but stayed close and trailed at just 11-8 after a Mount Union attacking error. Mount Union bumped its lead to 16-10, but the Cardinals responded with a 6-1 run to tie the frame at 17-17 and force a Raider timeout.
Mount Union eventually held on, taking the third frame, 25-20, to finish off the match.
The Cardinals was uncharacteristic throughout, hitting just .089 on the night with 33 kills and 23 errors on 112 attempts. Sophomore Krystin Estes was the only Cardinal to hit over .275, posting a solid line of eight kills, and no misfires, on 14 attempts to hit .571.
Otterbein senior Annie Juenger finished with a match-high 10 kills but also had 11 errors throughout.
Junior setter Tabatha Piper handed out a match-high 25 assists while classmate Evelyn Carus came up with a team-best 12 digs on the back line.
The Purple Raider offense hit .255 over the three sets, getting nine kills from Taylor Webb and another eight from Allison Twining.
Mount Union advances to Saturday's tournament championship match to take on No. 2 seed Heidelberg University, which outlasted Ohio Northern University in five sets earlier in the evening.
