The Marietta College volleyball team huddles while Otterbein celebrates in the background following Saturday’s Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship match at Ban Johnson Arena. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

MARIETTA — Marietta College suffered its first loss of the season and was denied its first ever Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship Saturday at Ban Johnson Arena.

However, the Pioneers aren’t going to let that bring them down.

“We’re going to be just fine,” said MC head coach Kristy Newman following her team’s four-set loss to Otterbein.

“It’s been sort of a running joke that I said I don’t want to go undefeated. We have to lose at some point and how we respond now is going to be huge. One thing that I think we do really well is love each other. We’ve been able to love each other through the rainbows and sunshine, now we find out how we love each other after a loss.”

The Pioneers await Monday’s selection show, where they have a great shot at earning an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, and could even potentially host the Regional. So, they’ll look to bounce back after falling short to the Cardinals.

Otterbein, who lost in four sets at the BanJo in the regular season, won 25-20, 25-23, 11-25 and 26-24 Saturday to capture the program’s third straight conference tournament title.

Kennedy Hoffman led the Cardinals with 18 kills while Kristen Scherger added 11 and Emerson Baum contributed seven. Olivia Vitaz finished with 33 assists and five aces while Amanda Troyer had a team-high 17 digs.

The first two sets were back and forth, but ultimately the Pioneers found themselves in an 0-2 hole.

Instead of rolling over, Marietta came out on fire in the third set. Sophie Evans’ kill put MC ahead 6-2 early, and a kill by Jillian Feller sparked a 3-0 run that stretched the lead to 10-4.

Otterbein cut it to 11-8, but the Pios reeled off four straight points thanks to a kill by Fellers and three straight attack errors by the Cardinals, to go up 15-8.

Three aces by Maggie Fellers and kills by Emory Spitler and Mia Silva gave Marietta plenty of cushion at 22-10, Another kill by Silva and an ace by Ella Boyer made it 24-11 before Otterbein’s 11th attack error of the set got Marietta in the win column, cutting it to 2-1.

Neither side led by more than one in the fourth set until back-to-back aces by Grace Ganz put Otterbein up 10-7. Another service ace, this time by Vitaz, extended the Cardinals’ lead to 15-10, but a kill by Maggie Fellers followed by consecutive kills from Evans got MC within two.

Trailing 17-15, Marietta got back-to-back downed spikes from Silva and Jillian Fellers to knot it up at 17-all. Otterbein momentarily retook the lead, but two straight kills by Jillian Fellers put the Pioneers in front 19-18.

Momentum swung back in Otterbein’s favor when Vitaz assisted on a pair of kills by Hoffman and recorded an ace to put the Cardinals up 23-21.

Marietta turned it up a notch and got three straight kills — one apiece by Maggie Fellers, Boyer and Evans — to up 24-23.

The Pioneers had a chance to even it up at 2-2, but an attack error gave Otterbein life at 24-all. A kill by Baum put Otterbein up 25-24 before a passing error by Marietta sent the Cardinals home happy.

“It just wasn’t our day,” Newman said. “The things that normally work didn’t work, but we get to go back and watch and figure out why they didn’t work.”

Marietta, which is led by six seniors, will regroup and look to make a run in the program’s first ever tournament appearance, pending the results of Monday’s selection show. Newman believes the team won’t be deterred by one loss.

“They’re special and really good group, so now they’ll stay together,” she said. “We’re going to watch the film and learn from it. That trophy that we have for the regular season (OAC title) is still history and that’s still incredible. That’s something they need to be proud of and that (assistant coach) Hadley (Florence) and I are still so proud of them.”