ALLIANCE, Ohio—Mount Union's women's volleyball team clinched a home playoff game in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Wednesday night defeating John Carroll in a thrilling five set victory Wednesday night at the MAAC.
 
A 2 hour and 15 minute match saw 22 different ties and eight lead changes as Mount Union (18-6, 6-2 OAC) defeated John Carroll (15-9, 4-4 OAC) in five sets (23-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22 and 15-13) and moving its OAC game win streak to four straight. 
 
The Purple Raiders were led by junior outside hitter Heaven Bartell (Cleveland / St. Joseph Academy) with 17 kills and 26 digs.
 
Junior middle hitter Alexis Meyer (Avon Lake) finished with 11 kills and eight blocks in the match while junior outside hitter Darby Leininger (Chardon / Beaumont) and sophomore right side hitter Sydney Mercer (Salem / West Branch) each had 10 kills and three blocks.
 
Junior setter Casey Kildow (Bethesda / Union Local) and freshman setter Melissa Hansen (Hudson) each had 24 assists. Freshman Ava Bolen (Wellsburg, W. Va. / Brooke) had five blocks in the match while freshman right side hitter Sadie Thomas (Cranberry Springs, Pa. / Maplewood) had three.
 
Freshman libero Averi Haley (Orrville) finished the night with 23 digs while senior defensive specialist Adrian Petrisko (Elyria) had 14 digs and Kildow had 11 digs.
 
John Carroll was led by Marissa Lynch with 20 kills, Maddie Maziarz with 38 assists and Payton Miozzi with 26 digs.
 
SET 1
John Carroll got out to an early 9-5 lead but a 5-2 run seeing two kills from Leininger and a kill from Mercer got the Raiders within one at 11-10. Neither team got above a two point lead until a 17-13 lead for John Carroll. Mercer responded with two kills getting Mount Union within two at 18-16. Mount Union would tie the game up at 19 but a 3-0 run right after for John Carroll was the difference taking the set 25-23.
 
SET 2
Both teams were tied at points two through six but a 10-2 run for Mount Union including three kills from Meyer pushed the lead out to 15-8. John Carroll slowly battled back getting to 18-15 but this time Mount Union went on a 3-0 run using two kills from Mercer and a block from Bolen and Leininger to take the set 25-20.
 
SET 3
Set three saw the most ties in all of the match with seven and just one lead change. Mount Union got out to a 3-1 lead causing three John Carroll hitting errors. Mount Union got its largest lead of the set at 12-8 but John Carroll slowly crept back and took the lead at 17-16. Both teams tied at points 17 through 20 until John Carroll finished the set off with a 5-2 run.
 
SET 4
With the momentum on John Carroll's side, they took an early of 8-3 and 10-4. Mount Union battled back with two kills from Leininger and one from Mercer to get within two at 10-8 but a 4-0 run from John Carroll pushed the lead out to 14-8. John Carroll led 16-10 in the set but Mount Union finished the set off on a 15-6 run which included three separate runs of 4-0 including the final run from down 22-21 to winning the set 25-22. Bartell and Leininger paced the Raiders in the set with three kills each in those runs.
 
SET 5
 John Carroll pushed out to an early lead once again leading 6-2 and 7-3 but from there Mount Union slowly climbed back with a 2-0 run and a 3-0 run to tie the final set up at eight. John Carroll proceed to grab the next point and then a kill from Meyer, ace from Kildow and two errors from John Carroll gave the Raiders all they needed taking a 12-9 lead. John Carroll would close to within one at 14-13 but Mount Union found the leading hitter of the night, Bartell, for the final kill taking the win.
 
Mount Union clinched a top four seed in the OAC tournament which will begin November 7th but now puts its focus on the OAC regular season finale in Westerville on Friday at 7 PM taking on Otterbein.