WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The No. 2-seeded Otterbein volleyball team eased its way through an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament quarterfinal match Tuesday night in the Rike Center, turning back seventh-seeded John Carroll by final scores of 27-25, 25-19, 25-13.

The Cardinals, improving to 21-8 overall, advance to Thursday's semifinal round and will play host to Muskingum University at 7 p.m. The Muskies (24-6) earned their way into the next round following a straight-set win over Mount Union.

John Carroll (15-14) gave Otterbein all it could in the opening set, overcoming a few early ball-handling error and erasing a 17-13 Cardinal lead down the stretch. Otterbein responded to lead 23-19 and appeared ready to close the frame, but the pesky Blue Streaks delivered a 5-0 run to force set point and a timeout.

Otterbein hung tough from there, watch sophomore Emily Shuk score points 25 and 26 before an attacking error by JCU allowed the Cards to survive.

Otterbein carried that momentum into the second set, opening an early 14-6 lead and never trailing the entire way.  John Carroll wouldn't go quietly, closing to within 21-18, but the home side was able to finish on a nice 4-1 run.

The Cardinals finished the job in the third, holding a 12-5 lead initially and then stringing together seven-consecutive points behind the serving of libero Ashlyn Leon. The 19-5 margin allowed Otterbein to comfortably preserve its second win over JCU this season.

Shuk delivered a clean sheet on the outside, posting a line of 10-0-15 to lead all players with a .667 output. The effort was good enough to make Otterbein's top-10 list in the record books for best hitting percentage in a single-match.

Setter Andrea Miller contributed her 11th double-double of the year by finishing with match-highs of 39 assists and 18 digs to go along with five kills at the net.  Hadley Sterett ended with a match-high 13 kills while Tate Eppard and Alana King-Mendenhall posted eight each.

Libero Ashlyn Leon added 17 digs of her own as the Cardinal defense limited John Carroll to a .134 team percentage. Sarah Calabrese led the Blue Streaks with 11 kills.

Otterbein will now look for a second victory over Muskingum in 12 days, recently emerging with a 25-20, 20-25, 25-21, 25-23 over the Muskies on October 20 in the Rike.