At the beginning of the season, Ohio had hopes to win a Mid-American Conference title and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
After 11 weeks of play, the Bobcats have kept their goals a reality despite minor setbacks from injuries to key players.
This past weekend, Ohio (22-4, 12-2 MAC) won its 11th consecutive MAC East regular-season title, and if the Bobcats win one match this coming weekend, they can claim the outright MAC title for a second consecutive season.
“We know what our long-term goal is, but we are doing really well at staying focused for each game,” said Abby Gilleland, a sophomore setter. “We’re winning on Fridays and still staying focused for Saturdays.”
A title run like no other
After being ousted from the MAC Tournament in the second round of each of the past two seasons, Ohio has lost fewer than 10 matches for the first time since 2009.
“It’s been extremely stressful and physically fatiguing on these guys with just so limited bodies,” Ohio coach Ryan Theis said. “We’ve had to go short, but they just compete really hard.”
After losing junior outside hitter Chelsea Bilger for the year during the fifth match, the Bobcats were ranked from Sept. 9 to Oct. 13 and earned MAC player of the week honors eight times this season, which is the most in the MAC.
Ohio has overcome its adversity, being that many freshmen stepped up throughout the season. Freshman outside hitter Katie Horton ranks second on Ohio with 138 kills and has notched a third-best 32 blocks in MAC play.
“The competitiveness of this group makes it more fun than any of the others,” Theis said. “I think the grittiness and competitiveness of this group is so fun to watch.”
Giving Ohio its best shot
Since Ohio won eight of its first 10 matches in straight sets, including a win against then-No. 8 Oregon the first weekend of the season, the Bobcats have finished off conference teams in straight-set sweeps just three times.
Ohio has played four matches that have needed a fifth set during the past month, including a pair of five-set matches last weekend.
“We’re challenging ourselves when we put ourselves in (tough) situations, but we learn a lot through our five-game wins,” Gilleland said.
Akron, which has two MAC victories, showed how unpredictable any conference match can be when it beat then-MAC leading Ball State last week and gave Ohio a better chance at winning the conference.
The Bobcats have a one-match lead on Toledo and a two-match lead on Ball State in the standings, but they own a tiebreaker with Toledo.
“I don’t think that anyone had (Ball State) picked in the top four in the league, but they were in first place until a week ago,” Theis said. “If we had a couple better preseasons (among the teams) then we might be a multi-bid conference this season.”
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