Melissa Griffin pounded her 16th kill of the match and knew that she could make room on her finger for her fourth Mid-American Conference championship ring.
It was only fitting that the middle blocker, Ohio's offensive leader and all-time kill leader, clinched the Bobcats' fifth consecutive Mid-American Conference regular-season title with a 3-0 victory over Kent State.
It's definitely an exciting thing
Griffin said. It's cool just to have for the rest of your years when you're old and you forgot that you played volleyball and you bust out your rings.
Outside hitter Stephanie Blackburn, who also claimed her fourth ring in the victory, paced the Ohio defense with 19 digs.
We feel like ballers and we can't wait to rock all of our rings on one hand Blackburn joked. We're just excited for the whole team and especially for the freshmen
who get their first rings.
The Bobcats (22-4, 14-1 MAC) became the second team in conference history to win five consecutive regular-season titles, joining Western Michigan, which won six straight from 1983-88.
Setter Michelle Jantsch recorded her third double-double of the season, tallying 30 assists and 13 digs for the 'Cats in the victory.
The freshman said that seeing Blackburn and Griffin notch their regular-season championships as Bobcats gives her incentive for the future.
It's a lot of motivation and I'm kind of jealous; I want four rings
she said. I love looking up to them and admiring how they have four rings. I can only hope to get three more after this year.
Coach Geoff Carlston credited his team with showing persistence throughout the entire season, including overcoming a home loss to Miami early in conference play.
This group played really tough this year and I think this team improved as much as any team I coached
he said. It's nice to take a deep breath and enjoy it.
Outside hitter Ellen Herman added 13 kills and said that the loss to the RedHawks proved to be the turning point in the season for the 'Cats.
I think what is going to be talked about a lot is us losing to Miami here on our own floor
but we learned from that
and great teams always learn from their mistakes
Herman said. The losses that we had were against great teams and an advantage in losing is that you always learn from your mistakes.
After battling the Golden Flashes (19-9, 10-5 MAC) in two close games, Ohio left no doubt that it was the class of the MAC for a fifth consecutive year, winning the third game convincingly, 30-15.
We wanted to take this game and win the MAC championship
Griffin said. That was motivation to really give it to them in the third game.
The Ohio defense limited the Golden Flashes to a .119 hitting percentage in the match, and totaled 65 digs as a team to Kent State's 39.
I really think that we executed our game plan well
Blackburn said. We've been focusing on our defense a lot
