Volleyball Falls in OAC Championship

The Heidelberg College volleyball team found itself in familiar territory, the OAC Tournament Championship Match. It was the second-consecutive year Heidelberg opened the tournament with two wins to earn a chance at a title. Heidelberg, the two seed, battled number one seed and host Ohio Northern University, but fell short of the title, 3-1 (14-25, 25-23, 20-25, 22-25).
 
The win earns Ohio Northern an automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Championships which begins regional action on Thursday, Nov. 13. Heidelberg will find out Sunday night if they received an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships. A season ago, Heidelberg garnered an at-large bid and went on to post a win in the regional quarterfinals.
 
Heidelberg stands at 30-7 overall, which marks the first time the program has had a team reach the 30-win plateau and it was the second-straight season that Heidelberg set a record for wins in a season.
 
The Berg nearly forced a deciding set. Down 9-3 early in set four, Heidelberg battled back to tie the set at 18 on an Audra Vucic (Lancaster, Ohio / Fisher Catholic) kill. Heidelberg and Ohio Northern played to three ties and two lead changes with ONU coming out on the final change, 22-21. The Polar Bears held onto the lead for the match win.
 
For the second-straight tournament match, junior setter Morgan Magers (Green Springs, Ohio / Old Fort) was seeing double, picking up 46 assists and 14 digs. Vucic and Emily Hurlburt (St. Mary’s, Ohio / Memorial) led the Berg hitters with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Jackie Reinhart (New Riegel, Ohio / New Riegel) served up three aces and added 11 digs.
 
The Berg defense was led by Brittany Donelan (North Olmstead, Ohio / North Olmsted) with 25 digs followed by Magers, Suzy Street (Grafton, Ohio / Midview) (13) and Reinhart. Amanda Atchison (Frankfort, Ohio / Frankfort Adena), Hurlburt, Vucic and Magers each had three blocks apiece.