ALLIANCE, Ohio - The No. 7 Mount Union volleyball team wins the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season championship after defeating Otterbein 25-11, 25-17, 25-18 on Friday night in the McPherson Acadmeic and Athletic Complex.

This is the Purple Raiders (25-4, 8-1 OAC) third straight OAC regular season championship. The Raiders will be the number one seed and subsequently have home court advantage throughout next weeks conference tournament.

Otterbein falls to 16-12 on the season and 7-2 in conference. The Cardinals will finsih in the top four in the league and host a first round tournament game on Tuesday.

In the first Mount Union jumped out to a 9-1 thanks in large part to seven attacking errors by Otterbein. The Raiders extended their lead to 16-3 and went on to win the set by 14 points.

The second set was tightly contested and tied at 15-15 before Mount Union went on a 10-2 run to close out the set. The run was fueled by back-to-back blocks by Kara Berger (Mentor/Mentor) and Caitlyn Synek (Independence/Independence).

Mount Union dominated the net in the third set with six of its points coming off of blocks. The Raiders finished the match with 14 total team blocks.

Berger led the Raider attack with six kills and nine blocks and was helped by five kills apiece from Nicole Snyder (Mentor/Lake Catholic) and Mel Patterson (Mentor/Lake Catholic).

Otterbein was led by Kendal Kellogg with 18 digs and seven kills.

The Raiders are next in action tomorrow (November 1) at 5:00pm as they play No. 11 Juniata (Pa.). Before the game the eight Raider seniors will be recognized in their last home game of the regular season.

Mount Union's volleyball team will play in the first round of the OAC Tournament on Tuesday, November 4 at 7:00pm at home in Alliance.