BEREA, Ohio—The Mount Union women's volleyball tied its season high in blocks with 13 in a sweep of Baldwin Wallace, 25-22, 25-19 and 25-18, Wednesday night to grab an Ohio Athletic Conference victory.
Mount Union (13-3, 1-1 OAC) was led by juniors
Alexis Meyer (Avon Lake) with seven blocks and six kills while
Darby Leininger (Chardon / Beaumont) finished with nine kills and a hitting percentage of .391.
Freshman
Melissa Hansen (Hudson) and
Casey Kildow (Bethesda / Union Local) held the setter roles with 16 and 14 assists.
Freshman
Ava Bolen (Wellsburg, W. Va. / Brooke) finished with five blocks with sophomore
Sydney Mercer (Salem / West Branch) finished with four.
Hansen and senior
Adrian Petrisko (Elyria) finished with a team high nine digs while freshman
Averi Haley (Orrville) had eight digs.
Baldwin Wallace (7-9, 0-2 OAC) was led by Maleia Thurber with nine kills, Olivia Zawadzki with 19 assists and Lauren Gardner with 22 digs.
Mount Union jumped out to a 5-0 start thanks to an ace from Kildow and two kills from Mercer. Mount Union then extended the lead to 8-1 and 9-3. Baldwin Wallace brought the set within one at 12-11 but a 5-0 run where once again Kildow had an ace and Mercer had two kills. Baldwin Wallace once again battled back in the set tying it at 20 but the Raiders finished out the set on a 5-2 run finishing with a Meyer kill.
Set two started the way of the Raiders leading 12-4 with four different athletes having at least one kill. Baldwin Wallace got within four three different times with the final time being 19-15. Mount Union finished the set on a 6-4 run with Baldwin Wallace making four errors in the final six points.
Set three was a different start as both teams battled early on as Mount Union took an early 6-4 lead with two kills from junior
Heaven Bartell (Cleveland / St. Joseph Academy). Baldwin Wallace took its first lead on a 5-1 run leading 9-7. Mount Union proceeded to go on an 8-1 run which included three kills from Leininger. Mount Union finished the match on a kill from Meyer to win 25-18.
Mount Union now will return home for a non-conference match against Wittenberg on Friday at 7 PM and then an OAC match up against Heidelberg at home on Saturday at 1 PM.
