The Ohio Northern women's tennis team opened its 2017 Fall schedule with a pair of 9-0 victories over Defiance and Concordia (Mich.) on Wednesday afternoon at Defiance's Dix Tennis Facility.
The Polar Bears are 2-0 on the season, while the host Yellow Jackets fall to 0-3 and the Cardinals fall to 0-1.
The victory over Defiance marks the 17th consecutive season-opening victory for Ohio Northern.
Sophomore Ola Latala (Grosse Ile, Mich.) and junior Ashley Ochsenhirt (Birmingham, Ala./Briarwood Christian) each posted victories at No. 1 singles to lead Ohio Northern.
BLUFFTON - Paulding won a four-team golf match of Northwest Conference foes Monday at the Bluffton Golf Course.
The Panthers finished first wth 183 strokes, followed by Crestview (188), Bluffton (194) and Ada (246).
Ada was led by freshman Brevin Sizemore, who shot a nine-hole score of 58. Junior Austin Amburgey carded a 61. Ethan Hull posted a 63 and Rob Allison registered a total of 64.
Wyatt Badertscher added a 71.
Pirate Aaron Belcher was match medalist with a score of 38. Cade McGarvee of Paulding was second with a round of 43.
Ohio Northern junior Ian McVey (Stow/Munroe Falls) has been named the Ohio Athletic Conference Men's Cross Country Runner of the Week for the week of Sept. 1-4.
McVey led the Polar Bears (7-0) to a victory in the season-opening Bluffton 6k on Friday at the Bluffton Nature Preserve.
He led Ohio Northern across the finish line in second place in 18:40, finishing first among NCAA Division III runners.
It marks the second consecutive season that McVey won the award for his efforts at the Bluffton meet as he also won the honor on Sept. 6, 2016.
The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday at the Calvin (Mich.) Invitational.
The Ohio Northern volleyball team is ranked No. 25 in the first weekly American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, released Tuesday afternoon.
The Polar Bears (3-1) received 135 points in the poll, which is 126 fewer than the 261 they received as the No. 22-ranked team in the AVCA preseason poll in August.
Calvin (Mich.) topped the poll with 1,675 points and all 67 first place votes, Northwestern (Minn.) is second with 1,526 points and Southwestern (Tex.) is third with 1,474 points.
Northern finished the 2016 season with a 27-4 record and a perfect 9-0 record in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while being ranked No. 24 in the final AVCA poll.
COLUMBUS GROVE - The Ada cross country teams competed at the 38th annual Columbus Grove Invitational last Saturday morning.
"We had a great meet," said Ada head coach Joshua Klein. "All of our boys and girls ran their fastest times of the season, some improving by several minutes."
The Bulldog boys finished 21st out of 24 teams with 26 schools represented. Sophomore Reece Evans finished in a team-best time of 19:01 over the 3.1-mile course.
Bulldog Michael Crouse nosed out teammate Hunter Wells racing for the finish line as the duo came in only six-tenths of a second apart with a shared time of 20:04.
By Dusty Donley
Behind a massive game from Senior wide receiver Chase Sumner, the Bulldog football team improved its record to 2-0 as they traveled to Arlington last Friday night and defeated the Red Devils, 34-20. Sumner amassed over 200 yards receiving and three scores, along with three interceptions in the 14-point victory.
Ada drew first blood late in the opening quarter when Senior quarterback Seth Conley connected with Sumner, who turned on the jets and took it 61 yards to the house. Senior Aaron Everhart’s extra point kick was good, giving the Bulldogs the 7-0 lead.
