Volleyball Wins Sixth-Straight With OAC Win Over Mount Union

For the second-time in four days the Heidelberg College volleyball team defeated Mount Union College. In round one, on Saturday, the DePauw University Tournament Championship was at stake, but since then the stakes have been raised to an Ohio Athletic Conference Championship. The Berg began its quest for a league title with a 3-1 (30-21, 30-20, 23-30, 30-23) win over Mount Union tonight in Sieberling Gymasium on the campus of Heidelberg. The victory is the sixth-consecutive for the Berg who stands at 13-1 overall and 1-0 in league play, while the Purple Raiders fall to 10-5 overall and 0-1 in the OAC.

Mount Union jumped out to an early 8-4 lead in game one, but a kill by freshman setter Morgan Magers (Green Springs, Ohio / Old Fort) pulled the Berg within three points. Following Magers serve junior Kristy Bollenbacher (Huron, Ohio / Huron) checked into the game and served eight-straight points. A Mount Union attack error knotted the game at 8-8. Heidelberg would eventually gain its first lead of the game on a Whitney Magers (Green Springs, Ohio / Old Fort) kill and never looked back on the way to the 30-21 win.

In game two, Heidelberg opened up the scoring first and never looked back in the 30-20 victory. Heidelberg led by as many as eight points at 27-18 following a Laurie Patrick (Bellevue, Ohio / Bellevue) kill.

In the third game, Mount Union jumped out to an early 12-7 lead and never looked back. Heidelberg pulled within two points on a kill by Morgan Magers, but an attack error by the Berg swung the momentum back to the Purple Raiders as they held on for the 30-23 win.

Heidelberg regained its composure in game four and took a 6-1 lead early behind the serving of Emily Hurlburt (St. Mary’s / Memorial). Late in the game, Heidelberg held a 27-11 lead, but Mount Union mounted a comeback and scored seven-straight points to pull within 27-18, but it was not enough as the Berg held on for the 30-23 win.

Morgan Magers led the way for the Berg with her first career triple-double that included 44 assists, 16 digs and 10 kills. Patrick tallied 18 kills followed by Kelsey Elliott (Ottawa, Ohio / Ottawa-Glandorf) with 12. Leading the Berg defense was Megan Kempf (Olmsted Twp., Ohio / St. Joseph’s) with 33 digs.

"I am very happy how we came out and dominated early on," said seventh-year head coach Jason Miller. "We played some of our best volleyball this season early in the match. We have high goals for the season and to achieve those goals we need to play with composure and aggressiveness like we played with tonight in game one."

Heidelberg will return to action on Saturday against Muskingum. The match will begin at 1:00 p.m. and will be played at Tiffin Columbian High School.