By Andrew Korba
Senior Kelsie Zumberger was named Tournament MVP as the Ohio Northern volleyball team clinched the ONU Invitational with a 25-19, 22-25, 25-15, 25-14 victory over Trine (Ind.) Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
Northern is now 4-0 on the season while the Thunder stand at 2-1.
Zumberger had a phenominal weeked posting 159 assists and 37 digs. She has missed the past two seasons due to injury.
Juniors Jeni Kmic and Kristen Davidson joined Zumberger on the All Tournament Team as well.
In Set 1 against Trine, Northern found themselves tied at 17-17 and used a 4-0 run to expand the lead to 21-17.
The Thunder would get the next point, but ONU went on a 3-0 run to expand their lead to 24-18.
ONU would win Set 1 on an attack error from Trine by a score of 25-19.
In Set 2, Trine took an 11-10 lead and would never trail again in the set, rolling to a 25-22 victory.
Set 3 was tight before Northern used an 8-1 run to open up a 21-13 lead.
Freshman Ellie Gillespie clinched the set for the Polar Bears with a kill.
ONU built and early lead of 5-0 and roll to a 25-14 victory in Set 4 to clinch the match and championship.
Davidson paced ONU with 16 kills while freshman Kaitlann Hogrefe chipped in with 10 kills and a .562 hitting percentage.
Betsy Irwin led the Thunder with 10 kills.
ONU registered 49 kills while hitting .205 compared to 40 kills for the Thunder and a .079 hitting mark.
Ohio Northern will be in action again on Wednesday when they travel to face off against Bluffton at 7 pm.
