September 24, 2016
By: Samantha Granger, sports information assistant
HANOVER, Ind. - Less than 12 hours after matches finished on Friday night, teams were in the gym ready to go for day two of the annual HCAC/OAC Crossover. Bluffton was up in the first round of matches to face the Capital Crusaders who they just went five sets with last weekend in Wooster.
Both teams struggled out of the gate with Capital hitting .029 for the set while Bluffton was just slightly better at .033, but just enough to take the lidlifter (25-22). From there the Crusaders could not manage to get it together and the Beavers rolled though sets two and three (25-18 and 25-16).
Hitting at a blistering .538 clip with eight kills was LAUREN WEISGARBER (Bolivar/Tuscarawas Valley). MACKENZIE MCFARLIN (Ashland) led the offense against the Crusaders with nine kills and two aces. ERIN WEISGARBER (Bolivar/Tuscarawas Valley) paced the Beavers with 25 assists. Defensively, SYDNEY MOHLER (Lima/Central Catholic) topped the team with seven digs and she could not be stopped from the service line with four aces. ABBY ROHRBACH (New Knoxville) and CASEY CLARK (Lima/Central Catholic) chipped in six and four digs, respectively.
The final opponent for the Beavers from the OAC was Ohio Northern. Even though Bluffton lost to the same Ohio Northern squad less than a week ago, the Beavers came out ready to go. The Polar Bears once again came out on top, taking the match with set scores of 25-19, 25-22 and 25-7.
Leading the Beavers at the net was Lauren Weisgarber, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, with 10 kills. McFarlin and BETHANY MARTINI (Pickerington/North) were impressive as well, tallying eight kills apiece. Mohler added 21 pickups while Erin Weisgarber paced the offense with 29 assists and supplied eight digs of her own.
The Beavers return to play on Wednesday, Sept. 28, when they travel to Earlham College for a 7 p.m. start to kick off Heartland Conference play.
-BEAVERS-
