The Ohio Northern volleyball team will look to defend it Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season and Tournament titles in 2017 under the guidance of 27th-year head coach Kate Witte.

The Polar Bears finished the 2016 season 27-4 overall, including a perfect 9-0 record in conference play.

Witte and her staff welcome back 11 letterwinners in 2017 and six newcomers.

"We have a tremendous amount of optimism heading into this season," said head coach Kate Witte. "We lost two great players to graduation last season but feel confident that we have a great group coming back that can fill those voids and lead this team. We are really stressing consistency and feel if we can be consistent that we have a great shot at being successful."

Schedule

Northern will open its 2017 campaign as it hosts the 39th Annual ONU Invitational on Sept. 1-2.

ONU will also compete in the Illinois Wesleyan Invitational, the Wittenberg Fall Classic, and OAC/HCAC Challenge before returning home to host the ONU Triangular.

Conference play begins on Sept. 30 as Northern hosts Mount Union at the ONU Sports Center at 1 pm.

Other OAC home matches feature matches with Otterbein on Oct. 4, John Carroll on Oct. 14, Muskingum on Oct. 21 and Baldwin Wallace on Oct. 24.

ONU will travel to OAC-foe's Capital on Oct. 6, Heidelberg on Oct. 10, Wilmington on Oct. 17, and Marietta on Oct. 27. 

The OAC Tournament is slated for Oct. 31-Nov. 4 at campus sites.

"We have a pretty difficult schedule early on," said Witte. "To be the best, you have to beat the best and we really believe we have a shot at being very good. Winning the OAC is always a tough task so I feel our September schedule will prepare our girls for our brutal conference schedule."