Box Score

GRANVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein volleyball team fought back from some adversity to tally yet another win Sunday afternoon, emerging in a five-set showdown against host Denison inside Livingston Gymnasium.

The Cardinals, now 17-1 on the season, will be back in action with a key Ohio Athletic Conference matchup at No. 19-ranked Oho Northern come Wednesday evening. The Polar Bears are currently 16-3 overall and just swept Mount Union to begin their league schedule.

Otterbein prevailed at Denison by scores of 25-20, 30-32, 24-26, 25-22, 15-7. The Big Red (8-7), needed extra time to escape sets two and three, beginning with an insanely tight second frame in which there were ties at points 18 to 30.

The Cards fought back admirably in the conclusion of the third, overcoming a 23-17 deficit to tie the game at 24-24. Denison ultimately gathered itself to win a pair of points and take a 2-1 match lead.

Otterbein the kicked into gear, opening a 15-8 lead in the fourth set and holding off the hosts down the stretch en route to locking things back up. It would be all Cardinals in the fifth, flying out to an 8-4 advantage upon switching sides and then winning seven of the next 10 points.

Hadley Sterett hit .304 and tied for a match-best 22 kills on the Otterbein side, with Morgan Lowenkamp blasting 18 herself in the middle. Bethany Eippert and Alana King-Mendenhall both drilled 13, with Eippert enjoying a career-high in kills.

Setter Andrea Miller finished with a whopping 67 assists, the most by an Otterbein player since the NCAA switched to a rally-scoring format in the 2008 season. The number of points needed to win a set was dropped from 30 to 25 that year as well.

Miller also had a career-high 28 digs as five Cardinals reached double digits in the category. Otterbein hit .302 for the match compared to a .185 output for Denison.

The Big Red received 22 kills from Emma Woerner, 56 assists from Julia Miller and 39 digs from libero Kristin Thewes.