TIFFIN, Ohio – The Otterbein volleyball team remained perfect in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play Saturday on the road, emerging from Heidelberg's Seiberling Gymnasium with an entertaining five-set triumph over the Student Princes.

The Cardinals, now 5-0 within the OAC, won the initial two sets before Heidelberg admirably came back to force a winner-take-all fifth frame. In the end, it was Otterbein that made just few more critical plays to emerge by line scores of 25-20, 26-24, 23-25, 16-25, 15-20.

Otterbein led the entire first set, opening a 14-10 lead midway through and then a 22-17 cushion down the stretch en route to an early lead.

The Cards then managed to emerge in a tighter second frame, where they led 21-17 toward the end before Heidelberg rallied to the things at 23-23. Otterbein won long points at 23 and again at 24-24 before hanging on, 26-24, following kills from Julian Vermilion and Hadley Sterett.

Otterbein played from behind most of the third, but still had a chance at victory by trailing just 22-21 after a Sterett service ace. The Student Princes quickly responded with a kill and stayed alive.

Heidelberg was dominant in the fourth set, but Otterbein flipped the script to begin the fifth by opening an 8-1 lead and never looking back. The Berg' got as close as 12-9 shortly thereafter but the Cardinal lead was too much.

Four players reached double-digit kills for Otterbein, headlined by 17 from Sterett, 16 from Vermilion and 13 from sophomores Emily Shuk and Tate Eppard. Shuk hit an impressive .522 with a line of 13-1-23.

Setter Andrea Miller dished out a ridiculous 65 assists, falling just two shy of her career-best 67 last year in a five-set thriller at Denison. She is quickly approaching the 4,000 mark for her career. Miller and Sterett also had double-doubles with nice dig totals.

Libero Ashlyn Leon came up with 27 digs in the back while senior Olivia Harrris chipped in 15.

Otterbein was forced to turn right around and play Albion College in the tri-match format, unfortunately running out of gas as the Britons won by scores of 25-11, 25-20, 25-20. Miller had 25 assists and Leon had 24 digs as the Cards saw a 13-match winning streak snapped.

Otterbein, the lone undefeated team atop the conference standings, will be right back in action Tuesday evening in traveling to Wilmington at 7 p.m.