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No. 10 Ohio Northern Volleyball wins 32nd annual ONU Invitational with 4-0 record
Story Courtesy of the Ohio Northern Athletics Site
ADA -- No. 10-ranked Ohio Northern won the 32nd annual ONU invitational volleyball tournament on Saturday.
Northern finished with a 4-0 record after posting victories over area-rivals Defiance and No. 23-ranked Heidelberg Saturday at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears (4-0) defeated Defiance 25-16, 25-8, 25-20 Saturday morning and outlasted Heidelberg 25-17, 25-19, 18-25, 22-25, 15-10 Saturday afternoon.
Northern has now won the last two ONU Invitational crowns and has won 13 titles overall.
Ohio Northern sophomore libero Kasey Roeser was named the Tournament MVP, while sophomore setter Kelly Smerekanich and freshman middle hitter Julie Fuerst were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Heidelberg finished second in the 5-team tournament with a 3-1 record, while Defiance finished with an 0-4 mark.
Thomas More (Ky.) was third at 2-2 and Wooster was fourth at 1-3.
Fuerst and senior Alex Christian led the Polar Bears with 12 kills each, while sophomore Chelsie Timmons and senior Abby Schaller chipped in 11 kills each.
The Student Princes (4-1) were led by Amber Bevington with 16 kills.
Northern won the first two sets against HU 25-17 and 25-19, but the Student princes rallied to win Set 3 25-18.
After HU took a quick 8-3 lead, the Polar Bears used their size to get back into the match.
Fuerst came off the bench in Set 4 and collected 10 of her 12 kills as the Polar Bears regained the momentum and rallied for a 21-19 lead.
But the Student Princes scored six of the lasts even points to win the set 25-22 and set up a deciding fifth set.
The 6-1 Timmons and the 6-2 Fuerst were too much for the Berg to handle down the stretch as the pair combined for six kills in the lasts set.
HU took a quick 6-2 lead before a Timmons kill turned the tide.
ONU would rattle off six consecutive points, keyed by a pair of Fuerst kills, to turn an 8-5 deficit into an 11-8 advantage.
The lead was 14-10 when a Timmons kill ended the match.
Sophomore Kelly Smerekanich dished out a season-high 57 assists while sophomore Kasey Roeser had a season-best 35 digs for ONU.
Against Defiance, Schaller had 11 kills, including four in a 7-0 run to end the match, to lead the Polar Bears.
Malea Rolande rhad seven kills to lead DC.
Northern rolled to victories in sets one and two, then rallied from a 6-0 deficit in Set 3.
Trailing 20-18, the Polar Bears rattled off the final seven points of the match, including four kills by Schaller.
In Set 2, Northern used an 8-0 run to turn a 10-5 lead into an 18-5 advantage.
Ohio Northern will return to action Tuesday with a non-conference match at Denison.
