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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The top seeded Otterbein volleyball team threw its weight around to secure another trophy Saturday inside the Rike Center, sweeping No. 2 seed John Carroll in straight sets to win the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament in rather convincing fashion.

The Cardinals, winning an outright regular-season title last weekend, made it a 2-for-1 special in claiming the program's fourth tournament crown in a decade span. Otterbein dominated the first set before outlasting the Blue Streaks moving forward by final counts of 25-16, 25-21, 25-22.

As a result, Otterbein warrants the league's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Division III Championships and will grace the "Big Dance" for a third-straight time. The official Selection Show will be Monday afternoon at 1 p.m.

John Carroll, picked to finish eighth in the OAC preseason poll, likely ends its stellar campaign at 21-8 overall but will hope for a possible at-large bid to the postseason.

THE MATCH:

Otterbein took a few points to settle in before pulling away in the first set, flipping a 9-8 deficit into a comfortable 19-12 lead. The rest would be smooth sailing thanks to a few mistakes from JCU and consecutive kills by Amber Greeley and Morgan Hartman to punctuate the set.

The middle frame saw ties at 14, 15 and 16 before Otterbein soon kicked into gear again, winning a few points in a row to take a 22-18 cushion. JCU stopped the bleeding momentarily with a pair of kills before the Cards responded with the right arms of Hartman and Kennedy Hoffman.

John Carroll, behind some energy from a nice visiting crowd, wouldn't go anywhere quietly. The Streaks rallied back from a 15-11 hole midway through the third set to admirably force ties at 17, 18, 19 and 21 before snagging a 22-21 lead…

Otterbein head coach Monica Wright called a timeout for her team to regroup, and they did just that by going to Hartman for consecutive rips on the outside to jump back in front. The Cards would culminate with a 4-0 run to end the day.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:

Greeley was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament after a pair of otherworldly hitting performances, accompanied by Hartman and senior classmate Carlie Craycraft. Lexi MacDonald (JCU), Jennifer Follmer (JCU), Emma Conrad (Muskingum) and Jillian Fellers (Marietta) also made the list for their efforts.

THE STATS:

• Greeley delivered an absurd hitting line of 16-0-22, landing with a .727 hitting percentage for the match to rank as the fifth-best performance in program history. She had 37 kills across the two postseason matches.
   
• Craycraft had another double-double with 44 assists and 11 digs, surpassing 4,200 helpers for her career and breaking Andrea Miller's (former) all-time program record of 4,179 in the process.
   
• Hartman tallied yet another double-double as well behind 19 kills and 11 digs, while Hoffman added another 14 herself. The Cardinals hit a season-best .391 as a team.
   
• John Carroll was led by 10 kills from both Follmer and Jessica Liddle, as the team finished at a .291 clip overall. Cassi Calamunci, recently voted OAC Player of the Year, finished with a 5-5-31 hitting mark.
   
• MacDonald led all players with 21 digs while three Cardinals reached double figures. Amanda Troyer had 15 along with all three of Otterbein's service aces.

UP NEXT:

• Stay tuned to otterbeincardinals.com and all of our social media outlets for updated coverage heading into the NCAA's. Otterbein made the Sweet 16 last year up in Michigan.