Ohio (3-14, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) broke its 11-game losing streak by defeating Kent State (7-9, 2-3 MAC). Though Ohio has struggled throughout this season, it seemed to put it all together in this game, not letting Kent State win a single set, including winning one of the sets by double-digit points. Everything went correctly for the Bobcats, and this gives them their first conference win and first win since Sept. 5.
The first set was the closest of the three, with the final score being within two points. Ohio was actually down by six at one point, thanks to attack errors and two kills from Kent State. With the odds in Kent State’s favor, Ohio was able to do something that it had struggled with throughout the entire season: mount a comeback and overcome a deficit. After Kent State had a scoring run of six points, Ohio was able to answer back with four straight points of its own, with a service ace from Kendall White and big kills from Sierra Evans, Torre Kildow and Caroline Curran.
Kent State was once again able to climb back and make the lead five points, but Ohio didn’t give up, and with what was a team effort, it had a huge five-point run to tie the game at 18-18.
With three attack errors and two bad sets, Ohio and Kent State were evenly matched going into the final points of the game. Kent State was once again able to pull ahead by three with a service ace and numerous kills from Nadia Miller, but to close out the first set, Ohio answered with two three-point runs.
The first came when the Bobcats were down three and brought them back to tie the set at 22-22. Kent State scored off a service error from Ohio, but its second three-point run came to an end in the first set with a kill from White and a bad set from Kent State sealing the deal. Ohio won this first set with a score of 25-23.
Ohio continued to carry its momentum into the second set, and what was a set of trading scores, Ohio had more double-score runs. Ohio had three scoring runs of three points, with one of those containing a back-to-back service ace from Curran.
Ohio was on a roll and held a 20-15 lead going into the final moments of the second set. The Bobcats didn’t fumble the opportunity, though, and scored the five remaining points needed to win the set. The Bobcats won the second set with a final score of 25-18. Bailey Blair and Kildow had numerous kills in this set, and the whole team stepped up to put Kent State on its heels as the third set approached.
Kent State needed some life breathed into it in this set, but Ohio crushed any chance that Kent State had at winning a third set. In what was the most dominant set that Ohio has played in for a long time, it would go on to have a massive eight unanswered points after trading for the beginning of the set with Kent State. Ohio’s Gentry Brown had a service ace in this streak, and Emily Waddell had a huge kill. This made the score 12-5 and gave Ohio a seven-point lead that they would only continue to build on. For the rest of the set, Kent State was only able to score nine more points for the rest of the set and Ohio was able to score the remaining 13 needed to secure its first MAC win and third win of the season.
With a huge win and morale booster, Ohio looks to continue MAC play by traveling back to the Convo this weekend to face off against Miami.
