MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College volleyball team got off to a hot start Saturday (Oct. 28) afternoon as they battled with Ohio Northern, but had to survive a five-set thriller, outlasting the Polar Bears 3-2 (25-17, 25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 15-5). With the win, the Pioneers improve to 13-11 (6-0 at home) and 7-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
Marietta opened the first game on a quick 6-3 run. The early Marietta offense came from kills by
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington),
Mia Silva (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton),
Sophie Evans (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta),
Ella Boyer (Bay Village, Ohio/Saint Joseph Academy), and
Emory Spitler (Lebanon, Ohio/Lebanon). Ohio Northern ties up at 6 with a trio of kills from Ava Ehlinger. Marietta took advantage of some sloppy Polar Bear play to score five straight and extend the lead to 13-7. Later in the match, Marietta pushed the lead to 20-11 as the Pioneers scored four straight, three from kills from the Marietta front line.
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) converted two straight aces to put it at set point, but the Polar Bears stayed alive with a three-point rally of their own. The final point of the set was scored off of an Ohio Northern service error and Marietta took the first set, 25-17.
The Polar Bears jumped out to a 4-1 lead in set two, and kept the lead through much of the set. With ONU leading 14-8, the Pioneers begun their comeback with a
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) kill and an ace from Spitler. Marietta would then take seven of the next nine possessions to tie the score at 17, fueled by a pair of kills from
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington). Ohio Northern score three straight to retake the lead, but Marietta answered with a three-spot of their own to tie the set at 20. The Pioneers were able to gain a 22-21 lead with the help of some ONU attack errors, and finished off the set with an
Ella Boyer (Bay Village, Ohio/Saint Joseph Academy) kill to win set two, 25-21
Both teams battled to a 6-6 tie in the third set, but Ohio Northern scored five straight to take an 11-6 advantage. Later in the set, Marietta took four straight points with kills from Evans and
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) and an ace from
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) to tie up the score at 15. Ohio Northern would go on to score ten of the final 12 points, helped out by four Pioneer attack errors, and won the set, 25-17.
The fourth set saw the Pioneers fall to an early 8-3 deficit, but fight back to only trail by two. Ohio Northern took seven of the next 10 possessions, fueled by some Pioneer attack errors, to take a 17-11 lead. Marietta fought back to cut the deficit to two, 18-16, but could not overtake the lead. Ohio Northern scored the final three point won 25-20 to force a tie-breaking final set.
In the fifth set. Marietta took back the momentum with a vengeance as they jumped out to a 12-2 lead. With
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) serving, the Pioneers took eight straight possession fueled by two service aces and a pair of kills by
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington). ONU attempted to scratch their way back but Evans provided the exclamation point with a pair of kills. The Pioneers would go on to claim the crucial OAC match with a 15-5 win in the final set.
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) led the Pioneers with 14 kills and four aces. She also led the Pioneers with three blocks and 15 digs.
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) added 12 kills, two blocks, and 14 digs. Silva had 10 kills to go with her two blocks in the match. Spitler led with 48 assists.
Marietta has two non-conference matchup before the Ohio Athletic Conference postseason begins. The Pioneers will battle Bethany College Friday (Nov. 3) with an 8 p.m. start time and then will conclude the regular season against Hiram College Saturday (Nov. 4) with the match beginning at 1 p.m. The Pioneers have notched the #2 seed in the OAC Tournament and will host a semifinal matchup the following week.
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 X and Instagram.
