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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University volleyball team earned an important Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) victory Wednesday evening at home, taking down Ohio Northern University in the Rike Center.

The Cardinals, improving to 12-11 overall and 3-1 within the OAC, emerged in four entertaining sets by final scores of 26-24, 25-21, 29-31, 25-20. The win keeps Otterbein tied for second in the league standings with John Carroll.

Ohio Northern (14-8, 2-2 OAC) opened leads early on in both the first and second games, but Otterbein stayed the course and eventually pulled through to emerge with victories in each set. The Cardinals overcame a 20-17 deficit in the opener and also came back after the Polar Bears led 17-14 heading down the stretch in game two.

ONU looked like it was going to run away with set three, using a 6-0 run midway through to open a 17-10 cushion. The Cardinals struck a rally from there, slowly chipping away and ultimately taking 14 of the next 21 points to tie the frame at 24-24.

Otterbein then had five chances to end the match after the two sides traded the next 10-straight points, but the Polar Bears somehow found a way to stay alive and eventually emerge, 31-29.

The Cardinals had a short memory and moved on to the fourth set, where they quickly sprinted out to a 12-4 lead and forced an Ohio Northern timeout.

ONU attempted one last push, getting to within 22-19 and forcing Otterbein to regroup with a timeout. The Cardinals finished the job out of the break, winning three of the next four points and securing the win on a savvy tip kill from freshman Marie Thornton.

Three Cardinals finished with double-digit kills; 17 from Kendel Kellogg and 13 from both Megan Volosin and Kim Barker. Kellogg had 64 total attempts, the most for an Otterbein player since Annie Juenger also had 64 last season at Carnegie Mellon.

Senior setter Kayla Radekin tallied the first double-double of her career with 28 assists and 11 digs, while classmate Evelyn Carus played perhaps her best match of the season with 35 digs, a new career-best.

The Polar Bears were paced by 21 combined kills from Kaitlann Hogrefe and Hannah Davis, with setter Ashley Borchers dishing out a match-best 37 helpers.

Otterbein will have a relatively quick turnaround to finish out the week, hosting Muskingum University Friday at 7 p.m. for Senior Night. Kellogg, Barker, Carus and Radekin will be recognized prior to start time for their contributions to the program.