Box Score

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – A youthful Otterbein University volleyball team opened its 2015 campaign Tuesday in the Rike Center, hanging tough through stretches with No. 4-ranked Wittenberg University before ultimately falling in three sets.

The Cardinals, losing by scores of 13-25, 18-25 and 19-25, will return to action this coming weekend in their annual kick-off tournament. The event will begin at 3 p.m. come Friday afternoon.

Otterbein opened strong against the nationally-renown Tigers, jumping out to an early 9-4 lead before the visitors countered with a blitzing 16-1 spurt behind the serve of Kristina Fultz.

The Cards held another early lead in the second frame, this time at 7-3, but the Tigers clawed back again with six-consecutive points to jump ahead. A kill from Otterbein's Morgan Lowenkamp later tied the score at 17-17, but the Tigers would tally the final six points of the set to open a 2-0 advantage.

Otterbein again played tough in the final game, assuming an 11-10 lead after a Marie Thornton kill up the middle. The frame then saw ties at 12-12, 13-13, 14-14 before the Tigers proved to be too much to handle.

Thornton led the Cardinal offense with seven kills and a .367 percentage, while also tallying a pair of solo blocks. Freshman setter Andrea Miller handed out a match-high 15 assists in her collegiate debut and Libero Gracie Staten had 10 digs in the back.

Three-time All-American Kara Seidenstricker tallied match-highs of eight kills and 13 digs for Wittenberg, but hit just .107 after five errors over her 28 attempts. Courtney Huck handed out 10 helpers while Karen Wildemann distributed seven.