Ohio (9-15 overall, 7-5 Mid-American Conference) got a dominant sweep at home against Kent State (8-15 overall, 3-9 MAC) for the second time this season.
A common theme during this Ohio win streak is Ohio’s ability to spread the love. This game plan was very apparent today as the Bobcats had seven players record a kill, and five of those players recorded at least five.
“When you pass the ball around, we have all options,” Ohio head coach Kenzie Brinkman said. “It’s really hard to defend a team that can spread the love around and attack from anywhere.”
Out of all of the players that recorded a kill, junior outside hitter Gentry Brown stood above the rest. Brown recorded an impressive stat line of seven kills, two assists, three aces, seven digs and one block.
“It starts with our first ball pass, and then our other setters,” Brown said. “Our setters are doing a great job right now. Lexi is coming off the bench, doing her job. And then defense, our blocks are doing a great job. So I play defense around that easily.”
Speaking of Gentry Brown’s three service aces, the team in total had a season high of six aces.
“Once you keep doing it and stay the course, you continue to have that service pressure, those balls will eventually fall,” Brinkman said on the aggressive serve game plan.
Ohio started the first set off a little rocky, as Kent State was able to meet them at the net a lot and rack up many blocks early. After Ohio was able to adjust to Kent State's blocking, it was able to run away with set one 25-13.
After Ohio’s dominating first set, it looked like they were going to run away with this game, but Kent State didn’t let that happen. After a rough first set, the Golden Flashes came out swinging in the second set as both teams got caught in a back-and-forth battle. The Bobcats kept trying to pull away, but the Golden Flashes stayed in it. Eventually, Ohio was able to gain a small lead and hold on to it to take set two 25-21 and jump to a 2-0 start.
A big part of this win was the crowd. Each home game, The Convo increasingly fills, and today it reached a season high. The stadium was packed with 548 fans, including a large crowd of Brazilian international students. This big crowd brought a whole new aspect to Ohio’s game as they were rowdy for every point.
“We love a big crowd, especially at home in The Convo,” Junior middle blocker Emily Waddell said regarding the crowd.
Waddell also possibly recorded the most impressive stat of the day, racking up eight kills, which was second on the team, along with a nearly perfect hitting percentage of .800. An absurdly high percentage for 10 attempts.
The third set was interesting. It felt like Kent State had given up and was making many poor errors. Ohio had many opportunities to pull away, and almost did a few times. But the Golden Flashes just kept battling back and not giving up.
By the third set, Ohio was playing near-perfect on every aspect of the game, and Kent State was just not able to hang in. Ohio would win set three 25-18, capping off the dominant 3-0 win vs Kent State and moving to 7-5 in the MAC and 9-15 overall.
“Really important, because it was a chance to play the team we’ve already played before, before we started doing really well in the MAC,” Waddell said about how important this win was.
If Ohio can hold its own on this last road scratch before heading back to The Convo to close out its regular season, they have a strong chance of making the tournament.
“Just like we always have, from when we were 0-4 in the MAC until now, we’re going to prepare just the same. It’s our goal to get into the match, one practice at a time, doing what we can do.” Brinkman said on the team's approach.
