By Tim Glon
Ohio Northern clinched the No. 3 seed in next week's Ohio Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament with a 25-8, 25-12, 23-25, 25-5 victory over Wilmington Tuesday night at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears improve to 22-5 overall and are 5-2 in OAC action, while the Quakers fall to 7-18, 0-8.
Fourteen different ONU players registered at least one kill, led by freshman Ellie Gillespie with eight.
Northern dominated Sets 1, 2 and 4, hitting an amazing .458 collectively in those sets.
ONU hit .529 in Set 1 on nine kills in 17 attempts. Northern rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to go on an 10-1 run to take a 10-4 lead.
Six consecutive points extended ONU's lead to 18-6 and the Polar Bears cruised to a 25-8 opening set win.
ONU jumped out quickly in Set 2, using a 7-2 run to go up 7-3. Another 6-0 run put ONU up 22-7 and the Polar Bears hit .440 in Set 2.
ONU head coach Kate Witte emptied her bench in Set 3 and the Quakers took advantage, jumping ahead 11-6 and holding off a late Polar Bear rally for the 25-23 win.
In Set 4, Northern hit an astounding .591 on 15 kills on just 22 attempts to put the match away.
Leading 7-4, ONU scored 18 of the last 19 points, going on runs of 7-0 and 11-0 to finish the match.
Freshman Heather Saunier had 28 assists in her first career start at setter and junior Jeni Kmic had 13 digs to lead ONU.
Anne Keenan had nine kills to lead the Wilmington offense.
The Polar Bears will wrap up their regular season on Saturday at 1 pm at home against Muskingum on Senior Day.
ONu will then play host to a quarterfinal match of the OAC Tournament on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 pm at the ONU Sports Center.
