ALLIANCE, Ohio – The Mount Union women's volleyball team kept its postseason hopes alive Tuesday night, sweeping Marietta College in three sets in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament Quarterfinals.
The Purple Raiders (20-7) avenged a five-set loss from earlier in the season as they swept the Pioneers (16-11) with set scores of 25-16, 26-24 and 25-18.
The Purple Raiders' offensive attack was led by a duo in sophomore outside hitter
Zoe Sweigart (Canal Winchester / Canal Winchester) and senior right side hitter
Molly McKee (North Ridgeville / North Ridgeville) with 11 and 10 kills respectively.
Mount Union's middle hitter's had 15 combinded kills with senior
Ava Bolen (Wellsburg, W. Va. / Brooke) recording eight and sophomore
Cami Welty (Willowick / Eastlake North) had an efficient night, having seven kills on nine swings.
Sophomore setter DeLani Durst (Clyde / Clyde) and
Anna Mihacevich (Hinckley / Padua Franciscan) helped facilitate the Mount Union offense, dishing out 22 and 19 assists, respectively.
Defensively,
Averi Haley (Orrville / Orrville) led the Purple Raiders with 16 digs, while
Sam Cantrell (Eastlake / Eastlake North) added 14 digs to help secure the victory.
Marietta was led offensively by Karly Launder, who finished with a match-high 12 kills. Elyse Smither contributed 26 assists and 12 digs for the Pioneers.
Mount Union came out strong in the opening set leading 3-0 before extending out to 11-5. Marietta got within four at 13-9 but went on a 9-2 run with McKee and Welty each having two kills taking a commanding 22-11 lead and earning a convincing 25-16 victory.
The Purple Raiders faced a tougher challenge in the second set as there was eight ties over the first third of the set with the last being at 10-10. Mount went out to a 12-10 lead before Marietta used a 3-0 lead taking a slight lead. Both teams then tied at points 13 and 14 before Mount Union got a 3-1 run leading 19-16. Marietta battled back however tying Mount Union at points 20, 22 and 24 before Mount Union finished on a 2-0 run with kills from McKee to edge the Pioneers 26-24.
The third set began the same as the second with four different ties before the teams hit point eight. Marietta this time jumped on the Raiders with a 4-0 run but Mount Union quickly responded with a 5-0 run to take the lead at 12-11. With more ties at points 12,14 and 16 Mount Union put away Marietta on a 9-2 run winning the set 25-18 to complete the sweep and advance to the conference semifinals.
Mount Union will now travel to Westerville, Ohio, to take on No. 1 Seed Otterbein University in the OAC Tournament Semifinals on Thursday at 7 p.m., with a spot in the conference championship match on the line.
