In most games played with cards, aces are a reward

In games played against the Cards, aces are a curse. Just ask the John Carroll volleyball team.

The Otterbein "Cards", as in Cardinals, served up nine aces in dispatching the Blue Streaks by a 25-25, 25-23, 25-15 count Tuesday night at the Decarlo varsity Center.

Box Score

The Blue Streaks came into their second Ohio Athletic Conference match of the year looking for a win to push their record back to 500 on the season, both in league play and overall. Otterbein was looking to shake off a loss to nationally ranked Heidelberg and post its first conference victory of 2011.

In the first game of the match, an aggressive Otterbein team came out firing on all cylinders as they forced turned a tight game into a ten-point win. After JCU had pulled to within 18-15, the Cardinals rattled off seven consecutive points to close out the opening frame.

In game two, Otterbein struggled by making several mistakes in its attack, that kept John Carroll in the game.

After being tied at 15 apiece, Otterbein began to pull away, testing the toughness of the Blue Streaks with a six-point burst.
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JCU was up to the challenge though as they brought the game within one point a24-23, but the, Cardinals turned to their hot hand at the time, liz Palmer, to put away the final point and close out the second set.

Down 2-0 in the match, the Streaks truly had their work cut out for them. Matters were not helped byfalling behind early 7-2, forcing coach Cally Plummer to call a timeout and help the team regroup. The Cardinals, however, were never threatened in sealing the match.

Otterbein served up nine aces, marking the seventh consecutive match that a JCU opponent has recorded at least seven service winners. When JCU started out 7-1, only three opponents topped six aces against the Streaks.

Ally Nagle and Annie Juenger each had six kills and three aces for the Cardinals, who improved to 13-4 and 1-1 in the OAC.

It was nine kills from Charlotte Sykora that anchored the John Carroll offensive attack while Kerry Fox added eight.  Melanie Rodriguez, Jess Hammer, and Fox all contributed seven digs as JCU fell to 8-10 overall and 0-2 in league play.

Hopefully the team can shake off the tough loss to Otterbien as they play their next game in front of the Home Town crowd against Case Western on October 5, before entering back into OAC play.