It was one month ago, Dec. 9, when many Ohio volleyball faithful flocked to chat rooms and glued themselves to their computer monitors to watch a live Web cast.
Their favorite team had made it to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time in program history, and not even three time zones could keep Ohio fans from watching.
The Bobcats would lose their match against then No. 5 Arizona that night in Palo Alto, Calif., in five games (37-35, 23-30, 30-26, 18-30, 12-15) ending what was arguably the finest season of Ohio volleyball - a season with no regrets.
When you lose you like to think that as a staff there is something you could have done
or tweak something around but I think you have to have losses and to go through stuff like that coach Geoff Carlston said.
We had a great shot of really getting to the Final Four this year
and it's a great experience to fall back on
he said. Three years ago it was almost unfathomable to think of that
and it's going to make us stronger. It takes a little bit of luck and a lot of work to get there
and now they can actually see it.
In his three years at the helm of the Bobcats, Carlston has become the winningest coach in team history with a 90-11 overall record, which includes a 56-1 record against MAC opponents.
Carlston has won the MAC Coach of the Year award every season during his short time at Ohio.
With a 33-3 record, the 2005 squad now holds the Mid-American Conference record for the most wins in a single season. Its final ranking of 14 out of 317 Division I schools in the CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll is also the highest any MAC school has seen since 1983, a year that outdates the majority of the team.
Proving that history does repeat itself, Ohio was flawless in conference play, going 16-0 in the regular season. The Bobcats then became only the third team in MAC history to win three consecutive tournament championships with victories over Northern Illinois 3-1 (30-28, 30-11, 27-30, 32-30), Toledo 3-0 (30-21, 31-29, 30-28) and Ball State 3-0 (30-24, 30-25, 30-28) to earn another trip to the NCAA Tournament.
After defeating Alabama 3-1 (28-30, 30-18, 30-22, 30-23) in the first round of the tournament, the Bobcats would find themselves in an eerily familiar setting - once again in St. John Arena in the second round facing the team that ended their run last year, Ohio State.
Ohio's three game sweep 30-27, 30-23 and 30-22 of the Buckeyes, a team they were 0-14 against coming into the match, was the most significant moment of the year for setter Savanah Parra.
It defined the whole season for me
said Parra, who played the match in severe pain due to cramps in her thighs. Just seeing how well and how hard everyone played in the Ohio State game and being able to work through the cramping - it was the definition of what we had all worked for.
With her 1,704 assists in 120 games this year Parra holds the new Ohio record for both assists and assists per game in a single season, exceeding former teammate Briana Adamovsky's numbers.
However, with eight new freshmen and overall young team, the outcome of the season was not something the Bobcats had originally expected middle blocker and MAC Freshman of the Year Amanda Andersen said.
Coming in we were half experience and for the other half (college volleyball) was a completely new thing
she said. We knew we had potential to do good things but we didn't realize how much and how many good things we would end up accomplishing.
Whatever doubt existed in the college volleyball world of the Bobcats' legitimacy should be erased with Ohio leading the country in two offensive categories this year, both assists and kills per game with 16.53 and 17.71 respectively.
Individually, Parra finished second in the country in assists with 14.69 per game, while middle blocker Julia Winkfield garnered an All-American Honorable Mention nod along with being named to the Mideast All-Region Team.
Libero Michaele Blackburn is now first atop the Ohio all-time digs list with 1,551 through her three years as a Bobcat, having surpassed Brenda Bailey's 1,526 digs in the Ohio State match.
Next year the Bobcats will defend their nation-leading 37-game home winning streak, their three regular season and MAC Tournament titles, try to extend their run in the national spotlight and possibly become more of an Ohio sports dynasty than they already are.
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