WESTERVILLE, Ohio—The Mount Union women's volleyball team dropped a thrilling five set match (27-29, 25-18, 19-25, 25-23 and 11-15) to Otterbein in the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships Saturday afternoon as junior
Heaven Bartell (Cleveland / St. Joseph Academy) finished the day with 22 digs which put her over the 1,000 mark in her career.
The Purple Raiders (20-8) were led by a trio of juniors in Bartell,
Darby Leininger (Chardon / Beaumont) and
Alexis Meyer (Avon Lake).
Bartell finished the match with 21 kills and 22 digs, Leininger had 17 kills and Meyer finished with 12 kills and four blocks.
Junior setter
Casey Kildow (Bethesda / Union Local) and freshman setter
Melissa Hansen (Hudson) finished with 28 and 20 digs respectively.
Bartell was joined in the double digit digs by freshman libero
Averi Haley (Orrville) and senior defensive specialist
Adrian Petrisko (Elyria) with 17 and 13 digs.
Leininger and Bartell was named to the OAC All-Tournament team at the conclusion of the match.
Otterbein was led by the tournament MVP in Kennedy Hoffman with 27 kills while Olivia Vitaz dished out 49 assists and Amanda Troyer dug out 34 balls.
The match saw 40 different ties through out the five sets along with 20 lead changes. Mount Union and Otterbein both had hitting percentages of .218 while Otterbein finished with 76 kills and 31 hitting errors to Mount Union's 60 kills and 21 hitting errors.
Otterbein earns the OAC automatic bid to the NCAA Division Women's Volleyball tournament. The Purple Raiders will await their fate as they could receive one of the 21 bids into the tournament as well. The NCAA selection show will be on NCAA.com at 1 PM on Monday.
