Box Score

BEXLEY, Ohio – The Otterbein University women's volleyball team posted its second-straight come-from-behind Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) victory Tuesday evening, rallying to win in five sets at cross-town rival Capital University.

The Cardinals, emerging by scores of 18-25, 25-12, 22-25, 25-19, 15-12, improve themselves to an even 9-9 on the season and now sit 2-0 within the league.

The Crusaders (8-13, 0-1 OAC) opened strong in front of their home crowd, hopping out to an early 7-2 lead and never letting Otterbein get within four points the remainder of the set.

Otterbein quickly regrouped between frames, winning six of the first seven points in the second set before later widening the lead to 18-8. The Cardinals, behind the hot hand of senior middle Kim Barker, eventually tallied the runaway victory to draw even.

Otterbein seized a 5-1 lead to begin the third game, but a handful of errors coupled with the strong hitting of Capital's Courtney McCracken allowed the Purple and White to post an 8-1 run and jump back in front, 9-6.

Cardinal head coach Monica McDonald settled things down with a quick timeout, watching her troops break and capture 10 of the next 15 points, gaining a 16-14 advantage, to force the Crusaders to call a timeout themselves.

Capital fought back to force ties at 18-18 and 19-19 before edging out Otterbein on a long rally with the scored again tied, this time at 21-21. The Crusaders would use the momentum from that point to go on and win the frame.

Both sides traded points to begin the fourth game, with Capital first taking an 11-8 advantage before the Cards used a mini 6-1 run to jump in front. Otterbein slowly pulled away down the stretch, getting a fortunate point from freshman Megan Volosin on an improvised, left-handed hook attempt near the outside pin that hit the floor, followed by three timely kills to stay alive in the match.

Otterbein rallied behind Barker for a 10-4 lead in the decisive set, but the hosts fought off three-straight match points to keep the pressure on. Otterbein senior Kendel Kellogg would have the last laugh, ripping the match-ending kill up the right side to complete the comeback.

Barker was dominant throughout, tying a career-high with 21 kills and finishing with an even .500 percentage. She also had five digs and a match-best four block assists.

Kellogg added 15 kills (.344 percentage), classmate Kayla Radekin handed out 35 assists up front and sophomore Ashton Riffle, filling in for an injured Morgan Lowenkamp, performed nicely with seven kills, and just two errors, on 15 attempts for a smooth .333 hitting mark.

Senior Evelyn Carus and junior Gracie Staten combined to record 46 digs for Otterbein, which rattled off 14 service aces (five coming from Volosin) compared to just five collectively for Capital. The hosts were led offenisvely by 13 kills from both McCracken and Hanna Ewart.

Otterbein has the rest of the week off before resuming conference play in exactly one week, hosting John Carroll University Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Rike Center.