Ohio State
4-2
Southern Illinois
2-5
Buckeyes Capture Sports Imports D.C. Koehl Classic Title – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 7, 2014
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State Women’s Volleyball (4-2) defended its home turf admirably over the weekend, laying claim to the 9th Annual Sports Imports D.C. Koehl Classic trophy. The Buckeyes defeated Auburn (2-3), Florida Gulf Coast (2-4) and Southern Illinois (2-5) to take ownership of the hardware.
Freshman outside hitter Luisa Schirmer was voted the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player while Elizabeth Campbell and Taylor Sandbothe joined her on the all-tournament team. Additional members of the all-tournament squad included SIU’s Meg Viggars and Alex Rivera, Auburn’s Courtney Crable and Eleonora Kazarian from FGCU.
Ohio State closed out the tournament title run with a four-set win over Southern Illinois. After slipping in the opening frame, 25-22, the Buckeyes snared the next three while outscoring the Salukis by a combined 22 points.
Erin Sekinger was the straw that stirred the offensive drink, putting away a minimum of three kills in each set. For the day she attacked at a .560 clip with 16 kills. The senior from Columbus chipped in five block assists as well. Schirmer did a little bit of everything, recording the first double-double for Ohio State this season with 15 digs and 11 kills. She also fired a pair of service aces and got in on a block assist.
Following an 8-4 hole in set number one, the Salukis took control en route to a 25-22 triumph. Leads would be few and far between for SIU from there on, however. Ohio State began the come-from-behind victory duplicating 25-17 tallies in sets two and three before finishing it out, 25-19, in the fourth and final frame.
Setters Taylor Sherwin and Maggie Heim steered the offense to team hitting efficiencies of .320, .438 and .412 in the final three sets.
For the tournament, Ohio State hit .310 as a team paced by Campbell at .405 individually. Campbell took advantage of limited playing time, terminating 18 kills in seven sets (2.57 kills/set). Schirmer, the tourney’s MOP, was responsible for 29 kills, 31 digs and five blocks in 11 sets of action. Sandbothe led the way in kills though, racking up 34 while hitting .378 and posting 2.00 blocks per set.
The Scarlet & Gray head to Cincinnati next weekend to face Syracuse, Ohio and Xavier.
