It was not the best of nights for the John Carroll volleyball team in Alliance, but good news awaited the Blue Streaks nevertheless.

Mount Union, one of three first place teams in the Ohio Athletic Conference, handed visiting JCU a 25-8, 25-20, 25-14 defeat this evening. Soon after, with word of a loss by Capital to Heidelberg, John Carroll officially qualified for the eight-team postseason OAC Tournament. With one game to play in the regular season, the Blue Streaks can do no better or worse than the #8 seed in the playoff field.

Tournament play begins Tuesday at the sites of the highest four seeds.

As for tonight's match, JCU got in a hole early by dropping the first set quickly. The second set was by far the Blue Streaks' best. It looked like much of the same early on as the Purple Raiders opened up a 15-8 lead midway through the frame. Mount Union still led 21-15 when JCU won four consecutive points behind Kayla Musso's serving. When her ace made the score 21-19, Mount Union was forced to call timeout. The home team regrouped, and won four of the last six points for the second set victory.

For a little while in the third, the Blue Streaks were in the mix, and led 8-6 at one point following a kill by Thommie Jackson. Mount Union then ripped off seven consecutive points and never looked back in completing the sweep.

No player in the match on either side reached double figures in kills. Sarah Calabrese led the way for John Carroll with seven, while Shannon Atwell produced 16 assists. Musso had nine digs to go with two service aces as the Blue Streaks fell to 6-23 overall and 2-6 in the OAC.