No. 19 Ohio Northern Tops The Berg On Senior Night

The Heidelberg College volleyball team put up a valiant fight against No. 19 Ohio Northern University tonight in Seiberling Gymnasium on the campus of Heidelberg, but the Polar Bears pulled out a 3-1 (30-23, 19-30, 23-20, 23-30) Ohio Athletic Conference victory in the end. The win improves ONU to 22-7 overall and 6-0 in the OAC while the Berg falls to 17-10 overall and 3-4 in league action.

Heidelberg utilized two 6-0 runs in game one to hold an early advantage in the match. The first run came with the score deadlocked at 16 apiece and the second saw the Berg holding onto a 24-20 lead and a Laurie Patrick (Bellevue, Ohio / Bellevue) kill ignited the run to victory.

In game two, ONU jumped out to a 6-2 lead and never looked back on the way to even the match at one game apiece.

A Heidelberg attack error forced a sixth lead change in game three and put ONU on top for good. The Berg tied the game on two occasions, but never jumped out in front.

Ohio Northern held a 20-19 lead in the fourth game and went on a 10-4 run to end the game and earn the match victory.

For the game, Patrick led the way with 14 kills, while Emily Hurlburt (St. Mary’s, Ohio / Memorial) and Breena McCool (Tiffin, Ohio / Old Fort) tallied 11 apiece. McCool, playing in her first match since Sept. 2, also recorded two digs and four block assists. Morgan Magers (Green Springs, Ohio / Old Fort) dished out 40 assists. Leading the way for the defense was Megan Kempf (Olmsted Twp., Ohio / St. Joseph’s) with 34 digs. Magers followed Kempf with 17 digs to record her third-straight double-double.

"We came to play tonight," said head coach Jason Miller. "We fought hard and played some of our best defense of the season. Heading down the final stretch of the regular season we need to step up late in the game and learn to play through till the end."

Heidelberg returns to action at Marietta Oct. 21. Match is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m.