All four of Ohio's seniors were on the court when a kill from a Bowling Green hitter went awry. As the referee whistled the end of the last conference match for the group, they embraced.
The four years Meryl Bender, Sue Jacobi, Mandy Nichols and Michelle Jantsch have played in Athens have produced 93 wins and three trips to the NCAA tournament, but the two wins the teams captured this weekend might set the tone for the rest of the season.
This means a lot
Jacobi said. You're here for four years and see others go through it leave but to do it yourself is completely different.
With the weekend wins over Miami (10-16, 5-10 Mid-American Conference) and Bowling Green, Ohio (18-11, 10-6 MAC) captured a MAC East Division title and a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
Within the last three weeks we've played stretches that are the best we've played this season
coach Ryan Theis said. I think if there's a time to get into a conference tournament
that time is now.
Saturday's win over Bowling Green (8-23, 2-14 MAC) started with strong play on both sides of the net for the Bobcats, as the team had a .387 hitting percentage while holding the Falcons to .121 in the first set.
Ohio's offense dipped a bit in the second set, as Jacobi had more errors than kills in the game. Theis attempted to compensate for the errors by subbing in Leah Petrovich for Jantsch, the starter, but it did not help.
I think the biggest issue was with our setter-hitter contact. I think that once we fixed that in sets one
three and four
we were fine
Theis said.
The team responded after the break, as the offense came back alive.
I told Michelle and Sue to play better and if they did that
we'd win
Theis said. They did. It was pretty simple.
The nine blocks the team had on the set contributed to the 17 the team had for the entire match, a number that was its second highest total of the season.
The team also was able to string together long point-scoring runs, including eight straight points early in the third set behind the accurate serving of defensive specialist Mollie Geske.
We cross our fingers and hope now that we execute well enough in these next couple matches so we can win a championship
Theis said.
