Box Score

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Cardinal volleyball team picked up an exciting win Friday night in front of an energetic home crowd, taking down the University of Mount Union in a critical Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) matchup at the Rike Center.

The Cardinals, rallying to win by scores of 12-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-23, improve to 13-16 on the year and 4-5 within OAC play. The win helps tie Mount Union (15-11, 4-5 OAC) in the league standing and makes Otterbein the No. 6 seed in next week's OAC Tournament as a result of head-to-head tiebreaker. Otterbein could travel to Baldwin Wallace, Muskingum or John Carroll depending on Saturday's results.

Mount Union opened strong to take a lopsided first set, winning the first six points and never looking back to assume an early advantage.

Otterbein rebounded nicely from there, breaking open an 11-10 battle midway through the second set with a quick 8-3 run. The Cards eased to victory in the second and then used the momentum to capture seven of the first 10 points in the third.

The Raiders only trailed 13-10 after a kill from Kyleigh Jackson, but the Cards countered with three-straight points and eventually pulled away down the backstretch.

Both sides began trading points in a hotly-contested fourth set, with the visitors ultimately seeing themselves with a 15-11 cushion after an Otterbein attacking error. The Cards were not going anywhere, rallying with a 7-1 scoring spurt to seize the momentum and force a Mount timeout.

The set would then see ties at 21-21 and 22-22 before Otterbein head coach Monica Wright took a timeout with her team trailing 23-22. Her team would answer the bell, winning three-straight points out of the break and ending the match on a kill from sophomore Marie Thornton.

Sophomore middle Morgan Lowenkamp ripped off a match-high 17 kills for the Cardinals, falling one shy of her season-best. She committed just three errors on 31 total attempts to finishing with an impressive .452 percentage, and also played a key role defensive with five blocks.

Thornton's last kill allowed her to achieve a new career-high of 14 kills while senior outside Kasey White chipped in nine. Freshman setter Andrea Miller had one of her best outings this season, handing out 45 assists to fall one shy of her season-best. She also had eight digs and two kills.

Libero Gracie Staten, who recently went over 1,000 digs for her career last weekend at Baldwin Wallace, had 23 more while classmate Maddy Shelley had 12.

Jackson and Brooke Knollman combined for 23 kills to pace Mount Union.

Both teams will be back inside the Rike Center Saturday for day two of a tri-match with Thomas More College (22-4). Mount Union will play the Saints at noon followed by Otterbein's 2:30 p.m. contest against them. Staten, White, Shelley and fellow senior Kelsie Gessner will be recognized pregame as part of Senior Day.