By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Piqua, Ohio---The No. 2 Owens Community College women's volleyball team remained unscathed this year with a 25-12, 25-15, 25-19 win over Edison Community College on the road tonight.
With the victory, Owens is now 16-0 overall and 6-0 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play. Edison, meanwhile, falls to 9-4 overall and 3-2 in OCCAC play.
Owens, which hasn't lost a set yet this year, survived a battle from Edison, who is coached by former Owens volleyball student-athlete Julia Haupricht. The Chargers, down two late, called a timeout and then forced a tie at 19 in the final set. Owens, however, reeled off the match's final six points.
Summer Sweeting (South Central/North Fairfield, Ohio) started the rally with a sneak attack for a kill. Carrigan Gray (Liberty-Benton/Findlay, Ohio), who served the final five points, then assisted a right side kill from Jordan Alt (Ottawa-Glandorf/Ottawa, Ohio).
Gray then picked up a kill off a Niki Polce (Huron/New Boston, Mich.) assist to give Owens a three point lead. Another assist for Gray, this time on a left side kill off the block from Erika Angstmann (St. Marys/St. Marys, Ohio), gave Owens a 23-19 lead, which forced Edison's second timeout.
Out of the timeout, Owens got three tough digs from Polce, Alt and Gray on a point that resulted in an Edison attack error. The match point came on another attack error from Edison.
Polce finished with a team-high 16 digs, while Cassidy Wlodarz (Cardinal Stritch/Oregon, Ohio) chipped in a season-high 14 of her own. Angstmann added seven digs. Gray (19) and Sweeting (14) led Owens in assists, while Polce had a team-high three aces.
Angstmann led Owens offensively with eight kills on just one error over 20 attempts. Michaela Eisenhauer (Margaretta/Castalia, Ohio), Alt and Devon Heitkamp (New Bremen/New Bremen, Ohio) each tied for second on the team with six kills. Olivia Hermiller (Ottawa-Glandorf/Ottawa, Ohio) also had five kills and zero errors over eight attempts.
As a team, Owens hit. 341 over 85 attempts.
A big key to the match was the play of Owens at the net. The Express tied a season-high with 18 block assists, led by six from Heitkamp and five from Alt. Angstmann also added three, and Hermiller had two.
Ally Angstmann (St. Marys/St. Marys, Ohio) and Eisenhauer had the other two block assists.
Other contributors included: Brynn DuVall (Bedford/Temperance, Mich.), who had one ace and one dig over one set, and Madison Lammers (New Knoxville/New Knoxville, Ohio), who had four kills over two sets.
Next Up
The No. 2 ranked Express will now enter, perhaps, its biggest weekend in the program's regular season history. The team will face No. 1 Parkland, No. 8 Lincoln Land, No. 15 McHenry County and No. 20 Des Moines Area this weekend in the Parkland Invitational on Saturday and Sunday. With four more wins this weekend, the team could elevate to the No. 1 ranking in the nation for the first time in program history at the Division II level.