One thing that helped the Ohio volleyball team defeat Eastern Michigan last Saturday was its ability to make in-game adjustments.
The Bobcats (12-3, 4-0 Mid-American Conference) switched up their lineup with fresh rotations, finding the right offensive matchups and using more dump shots. The last adjustment was apparent as Ohio's setter, Savanah Parra, focused on dumping the ball on offense. The Bobcats wanted to do more dumping in their match against Kent State on Thursday night, but didn't attempt as many dumps as wanted. On Saturday, however, Parra attempted eight dumps to keep the Eagles on the lookout for more tricky shots.
The dump is open for us
and Savanah and Jill (DeArmond) are both good at it so it is something we need to do more coach Geoff Carlston said. Dumping forces our opponents to worry about it and if they are thinking about the dump then they can't defend some other things as well.
Out of Parra's eight attempts, she successfully scored kills on four of them. While four kills might not seem like a big impact on the match, the threat of dumps helped the team just as much.
Dumping helps our hitters a lot
if I can open it up and make the other team think about me a bit and make them second-guess their blocks
Parra said. It gives our hitters more opportunities for one-on-one shots
so we have been focusing on dumping in practice.
Outside hitter Ellen Herman, who racked up 14 kills against Eastern Michigan, said Parra's dumps make the team harder to defend.
They helped us
because it made them focus on more than just the hitters
Herman said. Savanah has opened up when she is up front
and she did a real nice job being offensive dumping
not only that but she was setting well too.
Overall, Carlston said that he liked the improvement in the number of dumps from the last match and that adjusting the little things keeps the team unpredictable.
We did a good job adjusting and playing a pretty strong game in the brain
Carlston said. I felt like we got enough kills through dumps to keep them (the Eagles) on their toes.
Outside hitter reaches defensive milestone
Heading into Saturday's match, outside hitter Stephanie Blackburn was four digs away from reaching her 1,000th dig of her career. She blew right past that number as she ended up with 19 digs and 10 kills on the night bringing her career dig total to 1,015.
Although Blackburn is one of Ohio's biggest threats on offense, she said she takes just as much pride in her defense.
Well I love offense
