MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College volleyball team took their unbeaten streak back home to the Ban Johnson Arena where they had to face a tough conference foe in Otterbein University Wednesday (Oct. 9) evening. In front of a rocking crowd, the Pioneers defeated the Cardinals 3-1 (25-22, 25-16, 24-26, 25-21). With the win, the #12-ranked Pioneers improve to 13-0 overall and 2-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference and with the loss the Cardinals fall to 12-6 overall and 2-1 in OAC play.
"PioNation showed up again tonight and we are so thankful!," said Marietta head coach
Kristy Newman. "The girls followed the game plan and trusted each other tonight! I am so proud of them!"
Before the match started, the Pioneers honored
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) for recently collecting her 1000th kill in her illustrious career.
Emory Spitler (Lebanon, Ohio/Lebanon) was also honored for recently collecting her 1000th career assist. Both players were met with a thunderous applause.
Both teams played evenly in the early possessions of set one as they were deadlocked in a five-all tie. The Cardinals capitalized on a pair of errors by the Pioneers and a service ace from Amanda Troyer to take a three point lead. Later in the match, Marietta cut the lead to 13-11 with the help of kills by
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington),
Ella Boyer (Bay Village, Ohio/Saint Joseph Academy), and
Sophie Evans (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta). The Pioneers then took five of the next six points, capped off by a kill from
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington), to tie the set at 16. Both teams traded the lead but the Pioneers gained control after a three-point run to lead 23-21.
Mia Silva (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton) and Evans closed out the set with kills and Marietta took set one, 25-21.
Marietta got off to a much better start in the second set, jumping out to a 11-4 lead. Silva was key during that stretch as she collected three kills. Otterbein scored on three straight points to cut the lead to four, but was plagued with several attack errors during the set and fell behind 17-9. Kills from Boyer and Silva pushed the lead to 22-13 and, although the Cardinals took the next three points, they could not overcome the deficit.
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) provided the final kills to hand Marietta the set two victory, 25-16.
The two teams remained close in the third set until the Pioneers strung together a three-point rally to them the biggest lead of the set at that time, 16-13. The Cardinals answered with a three-point run of the their own, getting kills from Maddie Mergin and Kennedy Hoffman, to lock it back up at 16-all. Late in the match, a kill from Evans put the Pioneer lead back at 22-20. Otterbein fired back with a trio of kills to take back the lead and Hoffman finished off the set with a pair of kills. The Cardinals won set three, 26-24, to stay alive and force a fourth set.
The Cardinals started strong in set four, jumping out to a three-point lead and then extending it further with a five point rally to take a 10-4 advantage. The Pioneers fought back with a pair of kills from
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) and then took five straight points, two from kills from
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington), to lock it back up at 13-all. After some traded possessions, Marietta finally took control, scoring six straight to bring it to match point. Otterbein was able to take a couple of points back, but Boyer finished off the match with a kill and Marietta claimed a 25-21 set four victory.
The Pioneer offense was led by
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) with 14 kills.
Mia Silva (Barberton, Ohio/Barberton) and
Maggie Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) had 11 kills apiece in the match. Fellers led the team with five blocks.
Emory Spitler (Lebanon, Ohio/Lebanon) collect 40 assists on the evening and, defensively, Marietta was led by
Keira Shannon (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah Community) 14 digs and
Jillian Fellers (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) with 13 digs.
The Pioneers will return home Saturday (Oct. 12) when they host Heidelberg University, with the match scheduled to begin at 1 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 X and Instagram.
