REGIONAL SITE
WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The 25th-ranked Otterbein University volleyball team will make another piece of program history this coming weekend in the Rike Center, serving as a regional host in the 2017 NCAA Division III Championships.
The Cardinals will welcome seven other schools as part of the eight-team Westerville Regional, scheduled to run Friday through Sunday on campus. Overall, 64 teams qualified to play in the national event, which will produce eight regional winners to square off at the NCAA Finals in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Joining Otterbein to compete in the Rike Center will be No. 3 Wittenberg, No. 19 Juniata, No. 20 Ohio Northern, Penn State-Behrend, Brockport, DePauw and Cabrini.
VISIT THE FULL REGIONAL SITE HERE FOR ALL INFORMATION.
"It's an honor and privilege to be selected as a host," said 11th-year Otterbein head coach
Monica Wright. "This is another step for our program on the national level and we want to keep moving in the right direction. I think the girls have earned it."
Otterbein stands 29-3 on the season, sharing the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) regular-season championship with Ohio Northern and then flying through the league's postseason tournament without dropping a set. The Cards are making their fifth appearance in the NCAA's after four-straight showings from 2010-13.
"I'm proud of this team for working to create a different mindset and sustaining that effort each time we take the floor," added Wright, the OAC Coach of the Year. "We are excited to reach this point but definitely not satisfied or content. It's about playing for the right to play again."
Otterbein is led by a trio of first-team All-OAC selections, headlined with senior middle hitter
Morgan Lowenkamp becoming the first Cardinal to earn Player of the Year honors. She ranks sixth nationally in hitting percentage (.405), led the conference with 397 kills and sat fourth in blocking.
Junior setter Andrea Miller leads the nation in assists (1,294) while classmate Hadley Sterett, a Wright State transfer, blasted 3.86 kills per set to lead the league. Upperclassmen
Marie Thornton and Alana King-Mendenhall help pack a punch while libero Ashlyn Leon has been a constant in the back with 540 digs.
Cabrini, playing out of Radnor, Pa., holds a 29-6 record this fall and finished a perfect 11-0 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference. The Cavaliers, behind 11th-year coach Eric Schaefer, topped Neumann in the CSAC championship match to secure its eighth NCAA appearance in the last nine years.
Freshman Steph Judkins paces the Cabrini offense, holding 427 kills to sit more than 150 clear of her next-closest teammate. Anne-Marie Jones (258 kills) and Morgan Collito (232 kills) complement Judkins while setter Olivia Blankenbiller is averaging nearly 10 helpers per set.
Defensively, libero Ashley Shannon leads the way with 586 digs while twin sister Emily is second at 349. Kaylee Plisinksi spearheads the Cavaliers in total blocks, registering 15 solo and 36 assisted.
Cabrini is 0-7 all-time in the NCAA Tournament while Otterbein is 1-4, with that victory coming in the last appearance during 2013 in a four-set win against DePauw. The schools share three common opponents this year in Carnegie Mellon, Salisbury and Denison.
Cabrini defeated Salisbury (3-2) and Denison (3-0) but lost to Carnegie Mellon (0-3). Meanwhile, Otterbein beat Salisbury (3-1), topped Denison twice (3-0, 3-2) and lost a wild matchup against CMU (2-3). The Cards played without Sterett in the Salisbury contest.
Calvin College will serve as host of the NCAA Finals, scheduled for Nov. 16-18 at Van Noord Arena. The Knights are the defending national champions.
