By Chris Schmidbauer, Sports Information Director
Toledo, OH -- After winning the Region XII title on Saturday, the Owens Express saw themselves stay atop the Tachikara Division III poll to close the regular season. Owens claimed the No. 1 ranking last week, after knocking off then No.2 ranked Columbus State the week prior.
Owens played the OCCAC finaled this past Wednesday at Lakeland, where they defeated the Lakers 3-0, to set up this past Saturday's Region XII tournament. Owens played Lorain County, after the Commodores defeated Columbus State in five sets.
Owens would defeat the Commodores in straight sets, 25-14, 25-18, and 25-16 to win the NJCAA Region XII championship. The Express received a dominant performance from sophomore Michaela Eisenhauer. The Castaila, OH native finished with a team high 19 kills in the match and she finished with an attack percentage above 50%. She also finished with an ace serve and seven digs against Lorain County.
Kennedy Ames and Kara Evers had nine and eight kills respectively in the match as well. Ames also had eight digs too. Kiah Wendel was the team leader in digs with 13, while sophomore Summer Sweeting finished with a team high in assists with 20. Kara Schafer had 15 assists too.
Michaela Eisenhauer's performance earned her another OCCAC Player of the Week Award. It was the third time this season that she has won the award. She had previously won the award on August 27 and September 24.
With another undefeated week, the Express stayed atop the Division III Top Ten Poll for the second week. Owens will now move on to District play which will be hosted by Butler Community College in Pennsylvania. The tournament decides who will advance to the NJCAA National Tournament from November 8-10 in Rochester, Minnesota.