MARIETTA, Ohio – The Otterbein volleyball team ran its winning streak to six matches Wednesday night on the road but, most importantly, grabbed sole possession of first place in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) with a four-set triumph at Marietta.

AFTERMATH:

• The Cardinals clinch at least a share of the OAC regular-season title following scores of 26-24, 19-25, 25-16, 25-14 inside a rowdy Ban Johnson Arena. They will now have an opportunity to win the program's first outright crown on Saturday afternoon.
   
• No matter what, Otterbein will be the top seed in next week's OAC Tournament after mid-week losses by Mount Union and Ohio Northern.
   
• Marietta, enjoying a recent uptick and best season in quite some time, entered Wednesday night deadlocked with Otterbein but drops to 18-6 overall (6-2 against the OAC). The Pios will need to beat Ohio Northern this weekend, coupled with a Cardinal loss, to share the regular-season crown.
   

HOW IT PLAYED OUT:

• Otterbein came out strong with multiple arms swinging well, but Marietta hung point-for-point behind nice energy from its boisterous crowd. The Cards forced a Pioneer timeout after grabbing a 21-18 lead, which included a cross-court kill from Kennedy Hoffman followed by missles from Amber Greeley and Morgan Hartman…
   
• But Marietta quickly closed the gap at 22-21 shortly thereafter. Two close calls ended the first set in extra points after a 24-24 tie, with a Pioneer attack being ruled just out in the back-left corner and a tip (from Hartman) near the up referee deemed just on the line.
   
• Marietta responded nicely in the second frame, holding slim leads at 15-14 and 18-17 before a culminating 4-0 run evened the match.
   
• The Cards threw the next punch behind some hot serving in the third, finding momentum with Carlie Craycraft at the line to extend an 8-7 gap into a 15-8 advantage. Kailey Mishler then served another four points down the stretch as Otterbein opened a 21-13 edge.
   
• That momentum carried over into the fourth as libero Amanda Troyer took her moment on the service line, notching three-straight aces in the early going as Otterbein took a 6-2 lead. The group never trailed en route to finding rather comfortable leads of 10-4 and 19-10 soon after.
   

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Otterbein was extremely balanced around the floor, with three players at double-digit kills and four securing double-digit digs. Hartman tallied a double-double with 14 and 11, Greeley (13-1-24) hit .500 and Hoffman added another 10.
   
• Hartman now sits at 988 kills for her college career as she closes in on the notable 1,000 mark.
   
• Troyer secured 19 digs on the back line, her second-most of the season, and is now averaging over five per set over the last two weeks. Craycraft also had a double-double with 39 dimes and 18 digs while emerging newcomer Grace Ganz contributed another 10.
   
• Otterbein's defense helped create some long points in the latter half of the match by keeping multiple broken plays alive. Marietta was unable to hit over .090 in either of the last two sets.
   
• Maggie Fellers, a recent AVCA National Player of the Week, led Marietta with 13 kills while setter Emory Spitler had 37 assists.
   
• The Pioneers had 18 blocks as a team, including five with multiple rejections, while Greeley and Madison McCoy combined for seven on the Otterbein side.

 
SUPER SATURDAY:

Otterbein will head north to Alliance for a critical showdown against the Purple Raiders (19-6, 5-3 OAC), as first serve will take place at 1 p.m.