After dropping the last four OAC matchups, The Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets Volleyball team has finally collected their second victory in the conference, as they righted the ship against John Carroll. Before that, the team had lost four conference matches, winning just in 4-of-16 sets during that stretch.

In the meantime, junior libero Sarah Reinhard cracked the top ten career digs list, against John Carroll with 1,407 career digs. “For me, it’s just exciting because I know when I get a dig, it isn’t just a dig,” Reinhard said. “It’s another chance for our hitters to get set up and have a chance to get a kill.”

After the past week and a half, the Baldwin Wallace Women’s Volleyball team stands at a 18-5 (2-4) record. They will wrap up their regular season with four more OAC matches prior to the OAC tournament.

After opening OAC play with a victory against Capital, the Jackets traveled to face off against #11 ranked Ohio Northern, which they lost 3-1.

In team’s home opener the Jackets squared off against Otterbein in their home opener, in front of a large crowd. After BW won a close first set 26-24, Otterbein went on to sweep the next three, and win the match in the fourth set.

“I thought sometimes we let the moment get a little too big for us,” Head coach Kacie Ehinger said. “We let things kind of dictate our mood, the officiating, or plays that we didn’t agree with.”

Junior Alexis Garrett, led the Jackets with 15 kills while Reinhard totaled 17 digs. Junior Kathleen Egan contributed a team high 36 assists.

Tuesday, Oct. 15, featured several nail-biting sets as the Yellow Jackets took to the road to battle Heidelberg. After the first set saw the Jackets win 26-24, Heidelberg was able to even the score at 1-1, The teams swapped victories again, and after four sets the teams were even with 95 points scored prior to the start of the fifth set. Unfortunately, it would be the Jackets who came up just short of winning as Heidelberg pulled off a 15-13 victory in the final set, to give them a 3-2 match win in this toughly fought contest.

Though the Jackets did not achieve the win they sought, there were some bright spots to be found in the match. Kathleen Egan had a career-high in assists, at 59 total while also spotting 19 digs. Reinhard led the Jackets with 25 digs while sophomore Morgan Martin, and sophomore Ivy Earl, recorded a combined 35 digs. Juniors Taylor Brown and Alexis Garrett both led the team with 17 attacks.

This past Saturday, Oct. 19, the Yellow Jackets held their inaugural Pediatric Cancer Awareness Match at home vs. the #19 Muskingum Muskies. The Jackets were able to raise a total of $1,215 towards the fight against pediatric cancer.

On the floor, the Jackets unfortunately fell to Muskingum in three sets. The first and second sets were dropped at 25-13 and 25-15 respectively. The third set was closer as it seemed like Baldwin Wallace may have been destined for a late rally, but Muskingum was able to pull away for a 25-21 win and a 3-0 match victory.

“I think we struggled to find our consistency,” Ehinger said. “We were scrambling a little bit and so I’d love to see what we could have done if we were able to put ourselves in our system a little more.”

Junior Kail Nicholas led the team, touting eight kills, while sophomore Cecelia Stebel counted for five attacks as well. Reinhard led the squad with 22 digs, while four players split the most blocks of anyone on the team at two apiece.

Kail said there were a few things she was able to take advantage of, “I just came out and started swinging,” Kail said. “There was no reason to be cautious, and frankly the height advantage I had was a bit of a boost.”

The Yellow Jackets sit at seventh in the very competitive OAC. However, with that said, with the four upcoming matchups, all in-conference, climbing the standings is well within the realm of possibilities.