Women's Volleyball 11/8/2014 12:00:00 AM

Volleyball: Mount Union Wins OAC Tournament Championship; Snyder Named Player of the Year

Box Score

ALLIANCE, Ohio – Top-seeded Mount Union's women's volleyball team, ranked No. 11 in the nation, defeated second-seeded John Carroll 25-18, 25-22, 25-17 in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship match Saturday, November 8 in the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex.

For the Purple Raiders (28-5 overall) this their third tournament championship in the last four years. The Raiders will also advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the fourth consecutive season and for the fifth time in the last six seasons.

John Carroll drops to 23-7 overall and finish as the runner-up in both the regular season and the conference tournament.

The Raiders were led by Nicole Snyder (Mentor/Lake Catholic) who finished the match with a game-high 12 kills. Kara Berger (Mentor/Mentor) and Mel Patterson (Mentor/Lake Catholic) added nine and eight kills respectively.

Lauren Mastroine (Orrville/Orrville) led Mount Union's defense with 23 digs and Abby Riffee (Mineral Ridge/Mineral Ridge) chipped in with 11 digs.

Riley Schenk (Lorain/Amherst Steele) led the Raiders with 17 assists and Sarah Schleich (Westfield Center/Cloverleaf) was right behind with 16 assists.

John Carroll was led by Sarah Orlandi and Alexa Webber with nine kills each. Orlandi added four blocks for the Blue Streaks.

Mount Union's volleyball team will be watching the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, which is scheduled for Monday, November 10 at 11:00am, to see where, and who they will play next. The selection show can be watched at :http://www.ncaa.com/live/player?vid=2014/1822&date=2014/11/10)

All-OAC awards were voted on early Saturday morning and announced after the championship match. Headlining the first team was 2014 Player of the Year Nicole Snyder. For Snyder, this is her second Player of the Year award and her third appearence on the conference's first team.

Also on the first team was 2014 Libero of the Year Lauren Mastroine. This is Mastroine's second Libero of the Year award and her first time making the first team all conference.

Kara Berger and Sarah Schleich were both named Honorable Mention all conference. For Schleich this is her second time being named Honorable Mention and this Berger's first time making an all conference team.

2014 All-OAC Volleyball Teams

First Team