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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein volleyball team took advantage of being back on its home floor for the first time in over a month Saturday afternoon, overcoming an early defeat to prevail with a four-set victory over Baldwin Wallace.
The Cardinals, running their winning streak to 11 matches, emerged in the critical Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) showdown by final line scores of 19-25, 27-25, 25-23, 25-23. Baldwin Wallace, carrying a 19-match winning streak into the Rike Center, drop just their second outing of the season in falling to 22-2 overall and 2-1 against the league.
BW, fresh off a three-set win over nationally-ranked Ohio Northern, grabbed early momentum by opening a 13-6 lead early in the first set and never trailing again. The Cards tied the frame at 17-17 and 18-18 before the Yellow Jackets pulled away.
Otterbein appeared primed for a somewhat comfortable victory in the second game with a 23-17 advantage, but a pesky BW squad scraped back with a 6-0 run to make things interesting. The two sides would then encounter ties at 24-24 and 25-25 before the Cards received kills from
Andrea Miller and
Tate Eppard to survive.
The ensuing two sets could not have been much closer from start to finish, beginning in the third frame where neither team led by more than two points throughout. Otterbein found the difference-making points in the end, breaking a 23-23 tie on a timely kill from
Alana King-Mendenhall and then capturing the third following a BW setting error.
The fourth set featured deadlocks at 12, 13, 15 and 16 until a quick spurt by Otterbein forced Baldwin Wallace into a timeout at 19-16. The Cards held on from there, as Miller brought the home crowd to its feet on a solo block during the final push and a kill from
Hadley Sterett punctuated the final point with the score at 24-23.
Miller was everywhere en route to a match-high 45 assists and a team-high 17 digs, while libero
Ashlyn Leon added 16 digs herself. Otterbein also had eight service aces compared to just three for BW.
Sterett struggled early against the Yellow Jacket defense but found a groove as the match progressed, eventually posting 21 kills, 14 digs and getting in on three blocks. Freshman
Julia Vermilion registered 12 kills on the outside while King-Mendenhall and Eppard combined for 16 at the net. Eppard delivered a nice all-around effort of nine digs, seven kills and six blocks (two solo, four assisted).
Taylor Brown (12), Ivy Earl (11) and Alex Garrett (10) all reached double-digit kills from Baldwin Wallace, which hit .236 as a team and got a match-high 2 digs from libero Sarah Reinhard. Setters Kathleen Egan and Ashley Nuding combined for 49 helpers.
Otterbein will stay at home to begin next week, hosting John Carroll come Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
