Two sound wins lifted Ohio to the No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
Ohio (21-9, 13-3 Mid-American Conference) swept Buffalo (11-19, 4-12) and Akron (4-25, 1-15) last weekend at the Convo.
With the wins and Central Michigan’s loss to Miami, Ohio secured the second seed in the conference tournament that begins Friday. The Bobcats will face the RedHawks in the opening round.
Freshman outside hitter Chelsea Bilger built on success she had against Central Michigan Nov. 5 by contributing another strong performance.
“I thought Chelsea was great in the first two sets,” coach Ryan Theis said. “Some of the best (sets) she’s played, feeding off of last week. That was terrific.”
Against Buffalo, she paced the team with six kills in the first set and added four apiece in the final two sets. She finished the match with a hitting percentage of .303.
In the first set, the Bulls committed five errors in a row to give Ohio a 12-7 lead that the home team held for the remainder of the set.
The second set was closely contested, as Ohio’s largest lead was four points.
In the third set, the Bulls gained an early 12-4 edge before Theis called a timeout. After the timeout, Ohio outscored Buffalo 22-12 to take the match.
“When we were clawing our way back, it was about remembering what won the first two sets,” Theis said, “which was service pressure, slowing down their top hitters and being able to score in transition.”
The Bobcats struggled in the first set against Akron, surrendered a couple point runs, and were behind by as many as five points on two occasions before ultimately taking control.
In the second set, Ohio got the big lead and stretched it to as many as seven points. With the Bobcats needing set point and having a big lead to play with, they could afford to set an unlikely attacker.
Freshman Bailey Karst repeatedly set senior defensive specialist Nicole Staverman until she registered the final kill.
“I was an outside hitter in high school,” Staverman said. “We always joke about it (that on) my senior night, he (Theis) was going to let me play front row and I could get my first front-row kill. It was a lot of fun.”
Not to be outdone, senior middle blocker Katie Post ended the match with a kill and she reflected on what it meant to her.
“Obviously it is my last match here at home, so I just wanted to go with something good,” she said. “Luckily I got it.”
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