Win regular season title again - check.
With last Saturday's win over Central Michigan, the Ohio volleyball team clinched its third consecutive Mid-American Conference regular season title; however, for the No. 20 Bobcats (24-2, 14-0 MAC), there is still a lot of work to do.
That was one of our goals and we're going to talk about where we've come from
how we did it and how we continue to get better and refocus a bit for this weekend and then next weekend we'll turn our eye to the MAC tournament which is a whole different season - everyone is 0-0 going into it
coach Geoff Carlston said.
We just want to finish strong now
he said. We've got a lot of matches coming up - hopefully seven - before we even find out if we're in the NCAA Tournament so it's not like our season's over. We have a lot of volleyball ahead of us and still some room to grow.
Defensive specialist Molly Mangan agreed with Carlston's opinion, and said even after accomplishing that goal the Bobcats are focused on one thing right now, Friday's away match against Miami.
We definitely want to beat Miami in their own house
Mangan said. They gave us a little bit of a scare and we would like to stay undefeated in the MAC
so right now we're just concerned with Miami and getting that job done and then we'll take on the next goal.
A record-breaking crowd of 1,096 saw the Bobcats defeat the Chippewas in The Convo, something Carlston said was hard not to notice.
It was a great crowd
he said. They were up into the second level and pretty rambunctious. It was kind of cool
you looked up and it was kind of overwhelming how many people were there so it was a neat way to end the (home) season.
Aces aplenty
Against the Chippewas, Ohio tallied a season-high 12 service aces, the first time the Bobcats have registered more than 10 since 0ct. 9, 2004.
Leading the team was setter Jill DeArmond with four aces, while outside hitters Jenna Gaughran and Stephanie Blackburn added three and two aces, respectively.
I think we had the right mindset
using aggressive serves and going after them that way
Gaughran said. We know that any team if you get them out of system - however you do it - they aren't going to have as much success.
The Bobcats are now third in the MAC with 84 service aces on the season, and serving well, Carlston said, can only benefit the team.
I think anytime in college that you get that many aces you're not serving underhand
