The John Carroll volleyball team had to wait 13 years for this night. Although not always easy, the Blue Streaks utilized familiar surroundings to produce a long-awaited postseason victory.

The #2 seeded Blue Streaks survived a scare in the second set to complete a sweep of crosstown rival and #7 seeded Baldwin Wallace, 25-22, 28-26 and 25-20

JCU entered the quarterfinals of the OAC Tournament with a 21-6 record (7-2 in conference), which earned the Blue Streaks the number two seed in the tournament, the highest they had been seeded since 1994. John Carroll also earned its first home match in postseason play since a quarterfinal round match up with Mount Union in 2001.

Whatever nerves the Blue Streaks could have had were not evident, at least not early on.
 
The Blue Streaks and Yellow Jackets took the court in an electric De Carlo Center. Early on in the opening set, it was evident that this would be a typical crowwtown clash in which the seeds did not matter. Neither team was able create space until a 5-2 run by the Blue Streaks moved the home team out to a 17-13 lead, powered by Leah Switalski who led the Blue Streaks in kills in game one with four. Baldwin Wallace did not quit; however, as they rallied to tie the score at 22-22, which forced John Carroll to take a time out. The Blue Streaks wasted no time after the timeout, scoring three straight points to take the first set by a score of 25-22.
 
Game two looked as if the Blue Streaks would put away the Yellow Jackets with ease as they jumped out to a 19-10 lead. Behind the play of Kit O'Shaughnessy (who had 13 assists in the game) and Switalski (who recorded six kills in the game), JCU forced the Yellow Jackets to spend their two timeouts.

Some strong serving by the visitors and some uncharacteristic sloppy play by the home squad changed the tune of the second set. Before anyone inside the deCarlo Center could process what was taking place, Baldwin Wallace had jumped out to a 22-20 lead.

The Blue Streaks survived three set points before prevailing, 28-26.

Baldwin Wallace was not deterred by the close call loss in game two, and jumped out to a 5-2 lead in game three. It was part of a stretch where the Yellow Jackets had scored 21 of a possible 32 points, yet had nothing to show for it.

With Katie Cosker serving for a majority of the run, John Carroll responded with a 10-3 burst to take an 12-8 lead and never trailed again. Back-to-back aces from Mena Afsarifard enabled the Blue Streaks to arrive at match point, and would take game three by a score of 25-20.

"The team had jitters early and didn't play as well as they hoped, but hopefully we got them all out of our system before Thursday," said John Carroll head coach Laura Rodeffer.

Switalski led all players with 12 kills, while O'Shaughnessy had a match-high 35 assists. 
 
The Blue Streaks will take on #6 seed Capital, who upset #3 seed Otterbein on the road in straight sets in a quarterfinal round match of the OAC Tournament tonight in Westerville.  The semifinal appearance will be the first for the Blue Streaks since 2001 and the first semifinal it has hosted since 1993. JCU has not won a semifinal round match since 1995.

JCU and Capital will square off Thursday, November 6, at 7:00 p.m., at the DeCarlo Varsity Center. The winner will take on the winner of Mount Union and Ohio Northern in the championship match at the site of the highest remaining seed on Saturday, November 8.

"I am very proud of this team and I am excited to finally reach the semifinals of the OAC Tournament," said Jessica Kodrich, the team's lone senior who had two of the Blue Streaks' nince aces on the night.