Ohio will seek its first two-win week in more than a month when it travels to Kent State on Thursday and hosts Eastern Michigan on Saturday in The Convo.
The Bobcats have six games left in the regular season and need to win “three, probably four” matches, coach Deane Webb said, to make the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Thursday
@ Kent State
Match time: 7 p.m.
Ohio record: 9-14, 4-6 MAC
Kent State record: 11-13, 4-6 MAC
How to watch: An ESPN3 stream will be available on ohiobobcats.com.
What Webb said: “Kent is incredibly low error rate. Just unbelievable. ... Its last four matches, less than 5 percent of the balls it’s hit go out of bounds. Any team that's under 10? That's a good number. Under 5 is hard to wrap your brain around. It's just incredible what it’s able to do to make you score your own points. We'll need to go out and score our own points, but at the same time, not giving them freebies because it’s not going to give us any.”
Saturday
vs. Northern Illinois
Match time: 6 p.m.
Northern Illinois record: 14-10, 6-4 MAC
How to watch: An ESPN3 stream will be available on ohiobobcats.com.
What Webb said: "Eastern Michigan may be the most improved team in the conference this year. They went 18-16 at Miami in the fifth set last weekend, and they're defensively phenomenal. They have a libero that is really, really good, one of the better ones in the league. And offensively, they just move their hitters around quite a bit. Our block vision will need to be really good."
News and notes
- Simone Miller will return to the team this weekend after missing last weekend for a family emergency.
- Emily Walsh is also expected to return this week after missing both matches with an injury last weekend.
- Ohio defeated Kent State, 3-1, in The Convo on Sept. 20. The Golden Flashes have gone 4-5 since then; the Bobcats have gone 3-6.
