TIFFIN — After getting out of the gates in blistering fashion and holding on for a first set victory, the Heidelberg University volleyball program just couldn't get over the hump in the first round of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament on Tuesday nights as they dropped a four-set match at the hands of Baldwin Wallace. 

The fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets (23-5) knocked off the fourth-seeded Student Princes (21-8) by scores of 21-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-22. 

Heidelberg was paced by a balanced attack of three hitters with double-figure kills. Jordann Gudorf led the team with 13, and Taylor Valentine and Olivia Cristian added 10 each. Anna McNabb (22 assists) and Julianna Pena (17) evenly shared setting responsibilities. 

Sarah Oney had a team-high 22 digs, while Valentine had 15 of her own. Amy Feczer had a match-high four blocks for Heidelberg.  

In the first set, the Berg forced BW to use both their timeouts after jumping out to an emphatic 16-4 lead early on. The run was three different multi-point serving runs by Alyssa Crusey, Taylor Valentine and Mya Morris. 

However, the visitors used those breaks to refocus and nearly pulled off the comeback as they finished the set on a 17-9 run. Heidelberg did hold on to take the set that was capped by a Valentine kill and an attack error by Mary Zurbrugg of BW. 

The second set saw Baldwin Wallace to grab an early lead and rarely look back. The set did sway back and forth at times, but BW did not waver and put away the set 25-18. 

In nearly a carbon-copy of the second set, BW took a lead in the third after exchanging back-and-forths with the Student Princes and never looked back to repeat with the 25-18 set win. 

The fourth set showed much more energy from the Berg as they battled with the Yellow Jackets and forced the set tied seven times and changed leads on four occasions. With the visitors priming to finish off the match, Jordann Gudorf was not ready to concede so easily. The senior had two kills and a solo block in the dying moments of the match. Unfortunately, her efforts could not overthrow BW's attack. The match was sealed on a kill from Taylor Brown — her 11th of the match. 

All-in-all, Baldwin Wallace out-performed on the night with the edge on hitting percentage (.295 to .168), kills (62 to 45), assists (56 to 43), and digs (70 to 59). 

The visitors attack was led by four double-digit attackers — Kail Nicholas (15), Ivy Earl (14), Alexis Garrett (12) and Brown (11) paced the way. Kathleen Egan had 51 assists. Defensively, Sarah Reinhard had a match-high 23 digs while Egan added 15. 

The agonizing loss spells the end of the careers of seniors Taylor Valentine, Anna McNabb, Alyssa Crusey, Mya Morris, and Jordann Gudorf for the Student Princes.