Sidney High School graduate Arielle Snider is a big reason why defending national volleyball champion Owens Tech of Toledo is rolling along with an 18-1 record so far this season.

Snider, in her freshman season, had an excellent week for the Express. She had 12 kills in a win over Cuyahoga Community College, then followed that up with six kills and two solo blocks against Hocking, and 10 kills and a .533 hitting percentage in a 3-0 win over St. Clair County.

On the season, she now has 70 kills, seven solo blocks and 21 total blocks.

Devon Heitkamp, New Bremen

Heitkamp, who started her college career at Owens Tech, continues to play well for Northwestern Ohio in Lima.

Since last week, she had 14 kills and three aces against Concordia, six kills, six digs and two solo blocks against Cincinnati Christian, and nine kills, six digs and a solo block against Ohio Christian. All three were 3-0 wins for the Racers.

She also had eight kills and a solo block in a loss to Indiana Institute of Technology.

On the season, she has 153 kills, second on the team, along with 55 digs, 14 solo blocks and 44 total blocks.

Raquel Kessler, Jackson Center

Kessler turned in a steady performance for the University of Missouri-St. Louis this past week.

She had five kills, four digs and three blocks against Southern Indiana, five kills, five blocks and five digs against Wayne State, and five kills, five blocks and four digs against Ursuline.

The three wins upped the team’s record on the season to a perfect 8-0.

Caleigh Barhorst, Fort Loramie

Barhorst is a junior defensive specialist at the University of Toledo.

So far this season, Barhorst has 30 digs, and last week, she had six digs against Western Illinois, four against Indiana State and six against Wright State, all three games coming in the Wright State Invitational.

Toledo is 6-3 on the year.

Paige Jones, New Bremen

Jones had another outstanding week at Michigan.

She had 12 kills and six digs in a 3-0 win over Navy, a double-double of 15 kills and 11 digs in a 3-0 win over Eastern Michigan, and 21 kills and 14 digs in a 3-2 loss to Notre Dame.

A sophomore, Jones leads Michigan in kills with 101 and in aces with 14. She also has 70 digs.

Cassie Meyer, Jackson Center

Meyer continued her superb play for Wheeling Jesuit this past week.

She had eight kills and six digs against Minnesota-Crookston, 10 kills and nine digs against Minnesota-Duluth, and a double-double of 18 kills and 14 digs against Bemidji State.

On the season she has 98 kills, tops on the team, and 93 digs.

Audrey Francis, Fairlawn

Francis is a teammate of Meyer’s at Wheeling Jesuit and an outstanding defensive player. Over the past week, she had 16 digs against Minnesota-Duluth, 16 digs against Minnesota-Crookston, and 27 digs against Bemidji State. She leads the team with 181 digs so far this season.

Whitney Pleiman, Russia

Pleiman had two more strong defensive games for Edison State in women’s volleyball, finishing with 29 digs and seven kills in a 3-0 win over Lakeland Community College, and 17 digs, nine kills and five aces in a 3-0 win over Clark State.

Katelyn Sosby, Jackson Center

Sosby also plays for Edison and in the win over Lakeland led the defense with 21 digs.

Kristin Langston, Versailles

Langston is a senior at Ohio Northern, and in action against Denison last week, she finished with seven digs and an ace serve.

Danielle Barhorst, Minster

Barhorst plays at Sinclair Community College and had a good game against Miami-Hamilton, with six kills, five digs and a solo block.

The solo block was her eighth of the season, putting her second on the team.

• Cross country

Molly Kearns, Russia

Kearns is a senior on the Wright State women’s cross country team and she helped lead her team to the championship of the Rumble at the Fort in Fort Wayne, Ind. She was second for Wright State and third overall in 19:00.7.

Morgan Ely, Houston

Ely runs for the women’s cross country team at Wittenberg, and in the recent Ohio Wesleyan Invitational, she was fifth for her team in 27:12.8, helping the Tigers to a seventh-place finish.

Tami Groff, Versailles

Groff is a member of the women’s cross country team at Bluffton University and in the meet at Ohio Wesleyan last week, she was sixth for her team and 63rd overall in 27:48.5.

Aaron Fullenkamp, Botkins

Fullenkamp was seventh for Wright State and 31st overall in 29:32.9 in the Rumble at the Fort in Fort Wayne, Ind., last week.

• Football

Devan Rogers, Sidney

Rogers is a starting defensive lineman for the University of Toledo football team, and in last week’s easy 45-0 victory over Murray State, he had two solo tackles and one assist. One of his tackles was a sack for an 11-yard loss.

Sam Puthoff, Fort Loramie

Puthoff has been in the starting lineup at right guard in the first two games of the season at Ashland University.

The former Redskin is a 6-foot-2, 259-pound sophomore.