BEREA, OHIO -- The fifth-seeded Baldwin-Wallace College volleyball team lost to Ohio Athletic Conference rival and fourth-seeded the University of Mount Union, 3-0, tonight (Tuesday, November 2, 2010) in the quarterfinals of the OAC Tournament.  The scores of the match were 25-15, 25-18 and 25-10.  The Yellow Jackets end their season at 20-13 overall.

This fall, B-W had one of the best turnabouts in Division III this season. Head Coach Vicki Brault's team won five matches last season and compiled a 20-13 mark this season with a young squad that loses just two seniors in its top nine players. With that said, the Yellow Jackets will lose to graduation four-year starting setter and two-year team captain Casey Passen (Ashville/ Teays Valley), who ends her career third all-time in set assists with 3,303.

Up front, the Yellow Jackets were led against Mt. Union by Colleen Bonacci (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) with six kills and Passen with a team-high 17 digs.   

Setting the offense was Passen who led the team in set assists with 10 and sophomore Jessica Stitts ( Eastlake/ North) contibuted eight assists.  Defensively, freshman Taylor Burns (Tiffin/ Fostoria St. Wendelin) contributed 12 digs while sophomore libero Natalie Emmons (Ashland) had nine.

Season Highlights and Statistics

In addition to Passen, the Yellow Jackets were led up front by Rachel Switalski (North Royalton/Holy Name) and Bonacci. Switalski led the team with 280 kills, a .253 hitting percentage and 70 total blocks. Bonacci was second in kills with 242 and blocks with 53.

Junior Chelsea Nissen (Williston/ Genoa) again played a key role and had 192 kills and 337 defensive digs, and freshmen Shannon Deleur (Olmsted Falls) and Burns also made huge contributions.   Deleur had 185 kills, 322 digs, 38 blocks and a team-leading 39 service aces. Burns had 134 kills, 337 digs and 20 aces.

Although Passen will graduate, Brault can rely on Stitts to bring experience to that spot in 2011. This fall, Stitts had 378 set assists to rank second behind Passen. Defensively, Emmons had a solid season and led the team with 655 digs and contributed 17 set assists, 15 aces and 11 kills.

In addition and highlighting the season, B-W captured the Kalamazoo (Mich.) College Tournament title, had a 4-0 mark and placed second at the Annual Marcia French Memorial Tournament in Berea and had a 2-2 slate at the annual OAC/HCAC Challenge in Cincinnati, Ohio. Head Coach Vicki Brault also won her 300th career match at the College and ends her 16th season at BW with a 309-219 mark and improved her career slate to 379-269.

FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and e-mail at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.BWyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.