ADA, Ohio – In a classic showdown of last year's Ohio Athletic Conference regular season co-champions, the Otterbein volleyball team dug way deep Wednesday night inside the ONU Sports Center to emerge with a thrilling five-set win over No. 10-ranked host Ohio Northern.

The Cardinals, looking to bounce back after a four-set loss at No 15-ranked Muskingum over the weekend, did just that by claiming a wild 26-24, 22-25, 25-12, 22-25, 15-13 triumph inside a rowdy environment.

Otterbein, improving to 22-5 overall and 6-2 within the OAC, now sits one game back of the Muskies and Polar Bears in the league standings with one date on the schedule. The Cards will host Capital this coming Saturday in the Rike Center, ONU will host Mount Union and Muskingum travels to Heidelberg.

The Cards grabbed early momentum with a nail-biting victory in the first set, working out of a 12-8 hole and eventually seeing the frame locked at 24-24. Consecutive kills from Tate Eppard and Emily Shuk then punctuated the set.

Otterbein carried that momentum to a 10-3 lead in the second set, but Ohio Northern admirably battled back with an 8-1 run to tie things at 11-11. The frame was then locked at 16-16, and the Cards faced one-point deficits at 20-19 and 22-21 before ONU ultimately prevailed.

The third set would see a lopsided Cardinal flyaway, leading 10-4 and then 18-8 before coasting down the stretch.

A quality Polar Bear squad countered once more, claiming the fourth set with an identical 25-22 margin as the second frame. Otterbein's only lead was at 10-9, but the sequence saw four one-point scores down the backstretch to keep things intense. The hosts would eventually draw even with three kills sandwiched around a Cardinal attacking error.

The night would fittingly become a race to 15 points in a winner-take-all frame, which couldn't have been much closer as ONU led 8-7 at the changeover midway through. Otterbein finally settled into that opposite side of the court, erasing a 9-7 deficit to encounter ties at 10, 12 and 13. Ready to exit with a bang, Otterbein sealed the deal on back-to-back kills from freshman Amber Greeley to erupt the visitor bench and crowd.

Junior Dasha Bruyako, the upcoming OAC Scholar-Athlete of the Month for November (feature story to be released soon), was on fire throughout with a match and career-high 22 kills. She hit .333 and registered a massive double-double with 17 digs as well. Greeley finished at an even .500 clip, going an impressive 17-3-28 from the middle.

Emily Shuk added 18 for the third time this season while Tate Eppard had 10 around freshman setter Carlie Craycraft, who posted a season-high 69 assists. Her output marks the fourth most in a single match at Otterbein, and the most since the NCAA dropped the number of points needed to win a set (from 30 to 25) in the 2008 season.

Headlining Otterbein's night, however, was senior libero Ashlyn Leon and her season-high 29 digs. She went over the 2,000 mark for her career in the second set, becoming just the third player in program history to do so. She now needs just 28 more to crack into the top-10 in conference history.

"This is an awesome accomplishment and I really couldn't have done it without not only my teammates from this year, but the past three years as well," a smiling Leon said. "Hard work truly pays off and I love being part of this program."

Otterbein hit .243 as a team compared to a .171 effort for Ohio Northern. Eppard was in on a whopping 10 total blocks (one solo, nine assisted), falling just one shy of the program's single-match record. Craycraft added five herself while five Cardinals were in double-digit digs.

Leon, the team's lone senior this fall, will be recognized prior to Saturday's match with Capital for her notable contributions to the program since arriving four years ago.