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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The top-seeded Otterbein volleyball team delivered an action-packed performance Thursday night in the Oho Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament semifinals, achieving revenge by downing Heidelberg 25-20, 25-20, 25-21 in front of its Rike Center crowd.

The Cardinals improve to 28-3 on the year, setting a new single-season record for most wins and skipping into Saturday's OAC Championship match at 2 p.m. Otterbein will host No. 2 seed Ohio Northern, which eliminated Mount Union in three sets to advance.

The anticipated contest will be a rematch from a thriller back on October 4, when Otterbein escaped with a five-set road victory over the Polar Bears. ONU is currently ranked 18th in the latest national poll.

 

Fifth-seeded Heidelberg (17-12) traded excited points with Otterbein early in the first set, leading to a 15-15 tie midway through. The Cards kicked into gear from there, going on a 9-3 run and taking the set for an early lead.

Otterbein completely erupted in the second set with a flurry of blocks at the net, seemingly rejecting everything in sight and turning a 9-8 lead into a lopsided 20-10 cushion. The Cards had six blocks during the frenzy and ultimately held off Heidelberg down the stretch.

The admirable Student Princes never went quietly, watching Otterbein open a 13-8 edge in the third set but battling back to within 19-18 and forcing Cardinal head coach Monica Wright to call a timeout. Otterbein gathered itself from there in advancing to the program's second-ever OAC Tournament final (won back in 2012).

Hadley Sterett posted a match-high 16 kills over a healthy 48 attempts, while Marie Thornton was impressive with 11 of her own and a .409 percentage. Morgan Lowenkamp ripped off nine in the middle while Emily Shuk and Alana King-Mendenhall both had six for a very balanced offense. King-Mendenhall had a clean sheet with no errors and ultimately hit .600.

Setter Andrea Miller had 43 assists as she begins closing in on 3,000 for her career, and libero Ashlyn Leon had a match-high 14 digs in the shirt. Otterbein's defense at the net was the story, with the team finished at 10 total blocks (four solo, 12 assisted) and King-Mendenhall in on six alone.

The Cardinals hit .280 as a team and conversely limited their opposition to a .140 output. Heidelberg, which handed Otterbein its only conference loss earlier in the season and was on a seven-match winning streak, received 11 kills from both Taylor Valentine and Morgan Strenk.

The winner of Saturday's championship match will earn the OAC's automatic qualifier bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Click HERE to find more information on the tournament page.