SPRINGFIELD, Ohio—The Mount Union women's volleyball team upset No. 8-natioanlly ranked Wittenberg Friday night at Pam Evans Smith Arena.
              
The Purple Raiders (11-3) defeated Wittenberg (10-2) for the first time in the program history with scores of 25-23, 25-21 and 25-21.
 
Mount Union was led by senior hitters Isabella Sprunger (North Royalton) and Maria Ellesin (Alliance / Marlington) who both had nine kills. Sprunger finished the night with just 14 attempts hitting .643 percent.
 
Sophomore hitters Heaven Bartell (Cleveland / St. Joseph Academy) and Darby Leininger (Chardon / Beaumont) had eight and seven kills respectively.
 
Senior setter Mollie Thomas (Massillon / Massillon Perry) led the team in assists with 23 while senior Katie May (Brecksville / Independence) finished with 13 assists.
 
Senior libero Alyssa Kasaris (North Royalton) finished with a game-high 16 digs while Bartell finished one behind with 15.
 
In the first set both teams were tied at 1, 2 and 3 until a 4-0 run from Wittenberg gave them a 6-3 lead. Mount Union battled back and had a 4-0 run to take a 12-11 lead. The Raiders lengthened the lead out to 19-15 with two kills from Sprunger and a kill from sophomore middle Alexis Meyer (Avon Lake). Wittenberg responded with a 6-1 run though taking a 21-20 lead. Mount Union would finish the set on a 5-1 run with Bartell ending the set with a kill.
 
For the second set a back and forth battle saw 18 different ties as neither team could get a larger lead than two until Mount Union finished on a 7-2 run where the Raiders defense forced five hitting errors on Wittenberg to end the set.
 
The third set Mount Union got off to a 3-1 start with a kill from Ellesin and an ace from Bartell. Another 3-1 run fueled by a kill from Sprunger, Ellesin and Bartell gave Mount union an 11-8 lead in the set. Mount Union got a 17-12 lead thanks to a 6-2 run with Sprunger getting two kills, Ellesin and Leininger got a kill each and a hitting error from Wittenberg. A 5-2 run fueled by four kills from Leininger ended the match.
 
Mount Union now heads to a quad match tomorrow in Granville, Ohio at Denison University. Mount Union will take on Denison at noon and Kenyon at 4 p.m.