MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College volleyball team dropped a match 3-1 (24-26, 25-19, 16-25, 14-25) to Otterbein on Wednesday (Oct. 26) evening. With the loss the Pioneers fall to 18-6 overall and 6-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference and with the victory the Cardinals improve to 20-5 overall and 7-1 in OAC play.
Both teams traded shots all throughout the first set, trying it up on 10 different occasions on the way to a 12-all tie. Much of the early Marietta offense came from
Ella Boyer (Bay Village, Ohio/Saint Joseph Academy) as she provided four kills during the stretch. Later in the set, Otterbein jumped out to a 22-18 lead, but Marietta halted the run on two more kill by Boyer to close the gap to 22-20. The Pioneers fought back to eventually tie it at 24 with the aid of a
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) kill. The Cardinals scored the final two points and took the first set, 26-24.
Marietta got off to a much better start in the second set, jumping out to a 11-6 lead.
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) came up big during that stretch with four kills. After the two teams traded serves for a few points, the Cardinal began to close the gap with a four point rally. The Pioneers halted that momentum and got the lead out to 20-18, with Fellers bringing two more kills.
Becca Phelps (Mansfield, Ohio/Madison Comprehensive) helped bring the set to close as she was involved with the final three points, one by a kill and two with blocks. Marietta took the set, 25-18.
The two teams remained close in the third set until the Cardinals took advantage of some costly Pioneer attack errors, pushing out to a 15-9 lead.
Mia Silva (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton) provided a big kill to put the differential at four, but that is as close that Pioneers would get in the set. After Otterbein went on another three point rally, Marietta would get the serve back after a Silva and
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) co-block. The Cardinals finished off the set winning four of the final seven points and cruised to a 25-16 set three victory.
Marietta scored the opening point of the fourth set on a kill from Boyer. The Cardinals answered with 10 of the next 13 points to lead, 10-4. After the Cardinals pushed the score to 17-8, the Pioneers took a timeout to regroup. Marietta would answer back with four kills in six points to cut the lead to seven and cause Otterbein to take a timeout. Otterbein would go on to score six of the final eight points to close out strong. And capture the set four victory, 25-14.
The Pioneer offense was led by
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) with 13 kills and Boyer had 11 kills in the match. Defensively, Marietta was led by
Keira Shannon (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah Community) as she tallied a match high 29 digs.
The Pioneers will return to the court Saturday (Oct. 29) when they travel to take on Ohio Northern, with the match scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Following that match, the Pioneers will battle the University of Chicago in a match scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
