PHOTO GALLERY
WESTERVILLE, Ohio – Despite some early adversity, the No. 3 seeded Otterbein volleyball team worked its way back to secure a quarterfinal victory over visiting Mount Union on Tuesday night to launch the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament inside the Rike Center.
The Cardinals narrowly dropped the opening set before rallying to win by final line scores 23-25, 25-19, 25-11, 25-18, advancing to the OAC semifinal round at No. 2 seed and nationally-ranked Muskingum come Thursday night in New Concord. Otterbein now stands 24-5 on the season.
The Cards turned away cross-town rival Capital over the weekend, forcing the Crusaders to put away their purple attire for the fall, and did the same with No. 6 seed Mount Union this time around after dropping an earlier five-set matchup with the Raiders on the same floor back in early October. Mount culminates its season with a 20-10 overall record.
Otterbein led the entire first set before the Purple Raiders stormed back to steal the frame, erasing a 20-16 deficit and then winning a long rally with the score tied 22-22. The spark from that sequence pushed the visitors in the early lead after surviving 25-23.
That momentum would be short-lived for Mount, as Otterbein quickly regrouped after the second set saw early locks at 10, 12 and 14. The Cards broke away with a 7-2 run and eventually tied the match.
Otterbieinn junior
Emily Shuk spearheaded a dominant third frame by the home side, posting five kills in the run and, even more notably, getting in on six different blocks defensively. The Cards delivered a 13-2 run midway through the game to open a 2-1 match lead.
Mount Union hung tough to begin the fourth and battled to force a winner-take-all frame, holding a 16-13 lead at one point before the Cards took control again. Otterbein caught fire with a 10-1 spurt, flying to a 23-17 lead and never looking back.
Five players made it into double-digit kills, with Shuk going 16-4-32 (.375) to lead the way.
Tate Eppard added 13 and was also in on seven blocks,
Amber Greeley had 11 kills while
Dasha Bruyako and
Anna Donner both contributed 10. The Cards hit .303 collectively compared to just a .151 effort for the visitors.
Carlie Craycraft, entering the week ranked fourth in the nation for assists per set, continued her stellar freshman campaign with another 55. She now has 1,098 for the entire fall schedule.
Senior libero
Ashlyn Leon, recently earning OAC Defensive Player of the Week honors for a second time this season, had a match-high 23 digs to continue making history. The output moved her to 2,058 for her standout career and into the top-10 in conference history. Bruyako,
the newest OAC Scholar-Athlete of the Month, belted out another incredible national anthem performance prior to first serve.
Maria Ellesin had a match-high 17 kills on the Mount Union side and Madelin DiBease added 10.
The Cards will now strive for another redemption victory in the semifinal round at No. 11-ranked Muskingum after dropping an intense four-set showdown less than two weeks ago. Starting time on Thursday night will be 7 p.m.
