Box Score Making its first OAC Tournament appearance since 2010, the John Carroll University volleyball team was hoping to make its stay a long one.

Despite being the No. 5 overall seed in the field, the Blue Streaks perhaps faced one of the toughest draws squaring off against Otterbein University, the defending OAC Tournament champions and the No. 16 team in the weekly AVCA Top 25 Poll.

John Carroll battled hard but fell 25-18, 25-20, 28-26 to close its season at 19-11.

After needing five sets to top rival Capital on Saturday, Otterbein came out strong in the first set taking an 18-8 lead. The Blue Streaks recovered by scoring six of the ensuing nine points but could not cut the gap.

John Carroll came out strong in the second set with Sarah Orlandi notching a kill and Kit O'Shaughnessy stuffing Otterbein's Maddy Shelly to help stake the Blue Streaks to an 8-3 lead. The Cardinals raced out to a 10-3 run and would used a 7-0 stretch later in the set to take a 7-point lead at 20-13. John Carroll refused to give up and dug in. A 4-0 run by John Carroll cut the deficit to three, the closest the Blue Streaks would get for the remainder of the set.

Alexa Webber recorded three kills with Orlandi connecting on a fourth to give JCU the 17-14 lead in the third set. A second kill from Orlandi and an Otterbein service error maintained the 3-point lead but the Cardinals regrouped and tied the score at 19. The two teams traded points with Webber putting John Carroll back ahead at 23-22. Orlandi notched another kill to make it set point for the Blue Streaks at 25-24. Otterbein scored the next two points to swing to make it match point. Leah Switalski warded off the first match point with a kill but the Cardinals scored the next two points to finish the match.

Webber led the Blue Streaks with 11 kills for the match. Orlandi hit .500 finishing with 10 kills on the night. O'Shaughnessy (12), Sara Kaminski (12) and Caroline Brower (10) all finished with double-digit digs for JCU.