Box Score

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – The Otterbein volleyball team got itself back into the win column Tuesday night in straight-set fashion, downing host John Carroll University by scores of 25-17, 25-15-, 25-22 inside the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.

The Cardinals, improving to 22-3 on the year as a whole, now stand 5-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) and in a three-way tie with Ohio Northern and Mount Union. Otterbein will finish out the week Saturday afternoon at Baldwin Wallace.

Otterbein, playing without starting middle hitter Morgan Lowenkamp and libero Ashlyn Leon (rest), wasted no time jumping ahead with an early 10-3 lead and never looked back. The Cards rallied at the net around freshman Tate Eppard, who made her first collegiate start after playing sparingly in six other matches this fall.

John Carroll (5-22, 1-5 OAC) only trailed by two points midway through the second set until the Cards pulled away, striking together a 9-1 run and extending the match lead.

Otterbein finished the job in a tight third set, which saw ties at 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 before the Cardinals won three-straight points. Eppard led the way with a team-high 11 kills, hitting an even .500 on the night and also finding herself in on four blocks.

Hadley Sterett hit .364 in playing all the way around, contributing nine kills and seven digs to the Cardinal effort. Her sister, Hillary, tied for a match-best nine digs in replacing Leon while Kalyn Schroer joined in with the same amount.

Setter Andrea Miller posted 31 assists in spearheading the offense to a .278 percentage collectively. John Carroll, conversely, hit just .122 as a unit but did get a match-high 15 kills from Sarah Calabrese.

Otterbein also tallied eight service aces, getting half of them from Hillary Sterett.