September 25

Lady Jackets split on Saturday, Owens All-Tournament

--Springfield, Ohio—The DC Volleyball squad split Saturday games at the Wittenberg Invitational, while senior Mandy Owens earned All-Tournament recognition.

The Lady Jackets fell to #7 Ohio Northern for the second time this year, 30-24, 30-20, 30-23. Nikki Retcher led the Jackets with 10 kills, while Jill Evans had 20 assists, 14 digs, two solo blocks and four block assists. Mandy Owens had eight kills, and 14 digs, while Julie Steineman added eight kills, 11 digs, one solo block and six block assists.

“We played much better against the Bears (Ohio Northern) this time. They are a very good team and we matched up much better today than two weeks ago,” said DC head coach David Kwan.

In the second game, Defiance swept Allegheny 30-28, 30-18, 30-15. Owens added another 12 kills, 14 digs, and four solo blocks. Steineman had eight kills, 11 digs and three block assists. Evans added 16 assists in the second game.

Kwan was excited about what he saw at Wittenberg. “What we wanted to do before the start of Heartland Conference play is go to these very competitive tournaments to test ourselves against some very good teams.”

The second-year coach continued, “We played very well in sweeping Baldwin Wallace on Friday and showed that we can compete with a nationally-ranked team like ONU. What this weekend shows is that we are making steps in the right direction.”

The Lady Jackets, now 10-4 overall, will host Manchester to open HCAC play on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. before traveling to the Mt. St. Joseph Tournament next weekend.