Ohio preps for regular season with scrimmage at community center
The Convo sat empty and coach Deane Webb was not wearing his usual sport coat alongside the Ohio sidelines, but the team still swears that Saturday’s Green & White Scrimmage was a great way to start the season.
The “Green” defeated the “White,” 3-2, in the team’s annual intrasquad scrimmage, but the most impressive statistic might have come off the court.
An estimated crowd of 250 fans sat in the bleachers of the Athens Community Center.
“A lot of teams don’t draw that for their home matches,” Webb said. “I’m honored to be part of this program and our players love the support.”
The fans, which included fellow Ohio student-athletes, saw the scrimmage go five games as Green posted a 15-9 win in the fifth set to take the victory.
Webb said that besides the “usual suspects” — including senior setter Abby Gilleland and sophomore outside hitter Jaime Kosiorek — he was impressed by senior libero Meredith Ashy.
“Meredith (Ashy) was a standout in my mind all throughout the preseason,” he said. “When you’re a libero, you’re sometimes not getting noticed as much, but she’s been very good.”
Webb’s critical eye did catch a few miscues during the scrimmage though.
“The good things were good and the low things were a little lower than I would’ve liked,” he said. “That’s not unusual for this time of year. I obviously have a more critical eye than most, that’s my job.”
Despite the criticism, Webb was impressed with the versatility of his team’s lineup and its ability to be efficient throughout the rotations.
The coach wasn’t the only person to notice the sizeable crowd.
Freshman outside hitter Simone Miller said the crowd for the scrimmage was larger than what she usually saw at high school in Kalamazoo, Michigan and that it helped get her early jitters out of the way before the season started.
“Where I’m from, we usually don’t get crowds like this,” Miller said. “I’m just very excited to see what crowds are going to be like at The Convo.”
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