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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein volleyball team capped off its impressive regular season with a nice rivalry win Saturday inside the Rike Center, regrouping late to cement a 3-0 victory over cross-town foe Capital.

The Cardinals, winning by score of 2555-17, 25-19, 29-27, finish its schedule with a solid 23-5 overall record and 7-2 mark within Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play. As a result, Otterbein finishes alone in third place in the league standings in advance of next week's postseason tournament.

Otterbein will host a quarterfinal match on Tuesday night against No. 6 seed Mount Union, with match time in the Rike scheduled for 7 p.m. The winner of the upcoming OAC Tournament will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

The Cardinals recognized libero Ashlyn Leon prior to Saturday's match as part of Senior Day, paying tribute to her outstanding contributions to the program since arriving four years back. She recently became the third player in school history to surpass 2,000 digs and, with another 16 today, needs just a dozen more to move into top-10 in the OAC career record books.

Otterbein never trailed in the entire first set for an early lead, and then saw a few quick ties to begin the second before pulling away again.
The Cards turned a 6-6 deadlock into a 13-7 margin behind multiple kills from Anna Donner and Emily Shuk, but Capital hung tight and only trailed 17-15 later on. Otterbein countered with an 8-4 run down the stretch to grab a 2-0 match lead.

Otterbein then appeared to have everything in hand late in the third, leading 22-15 and entering a handful of subs off the bench. Capital (10-20, 1-8 OAC) stayed with it and delivered a 7-0 run to keep the frame interesting, ultimately seeing more ties at 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 until the Cardinals won a pair of points behind a Dasha Bruyako kill and a setting error via Capital.

The Cards hit .331 as a team, paced by clean sheet from Shuk (14-0-21) and Tate Eppard (12-0-20). Both players hit over .600 individually on the day around setter Carlie Craycraft, who posted 43 assists. Donner added nine kills herself.

Otterbein will now look to avenge a loss in early October to Mount Union, which came into the Rike Center on a Friday night in the league opener for both schools and emerged with an entertaining five-set victory.