Box Score
Ohio Wesleyan 3, Mount Union 1

Freshman outside hitter Megan Lantis (Wooster) and sophomore outside hitter Natalie Dieball (Cincinnati/Lakota East) posted double-digit performances in kills to power the Ohio Wesleyan offense in a win over Mount Union during the first day of the CMU Quad, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University on Friday in Pittsburgh.

The Bishops won the match by scores of 25-22, 17-25, 25-21, 25-20.

Mount Union threatened to take the first set after breaking a 16-16 tie with a 6-0 run that included a kill and an ace from Heaven Bartell, but the Bishops responded by scoring the last 9 points of the set, with Lantis turning in back-to-back kills before a Dieball kill and an ace by senior middle blocker Ava Kutilek (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier).  Junior setter Lily Bechina (Chicago, Ill./Jones College Prep) and senior middle blocker Claire Solberg (Huron) teamed up on consecutive blocks to even the score at 22 before kills by Solberg and Lantis helped the Bishops close out the set.

The Purple Raiders gradually pulled away from a 9-7 lead behind a pair of kills and a block from Riley Meister and 2 Bartell kills to take the second set and even the match.

Solberg had a kill and a block during a 5-0 Bishop run that opened up a 17-7 lead in the third set, but Mount Union narrowed the deficit to 20-15 with a 5-0 burst that included kills by Meister and Bartell and closed to within 23-21 on a kill by Ryann Kanable.  Ohio Wesleyan countered with a Lantis kill and an ace from sophomore defensive specialist Avery Krause (Cleveland/Holy Name) to finish off the set.

With the score tied at 17 in the fourth set, the Bishops took the lead with a 5-1 run that featured 3 kills by Lantis and another from Dieball, and Solberg and Bechina again teamed up on back-to-back blocks to end the set and the match.

Lantis led the Bishops with 16 kills, while Dieball finished with 14.  Bechina recorded 40 assists, contributed 5 blocks,and shared the team lead with 19 digs.  Solberg led the Bishops with 10 blocks, including 9 block assists, with the latter figure ranking third on the Ohio Wesleyan single-match list.  Junior defensive specialist Bella Guzzetta (Boca Raton, Fla./Spanish River) shared the team lead with 19 digs.

Box Score