Ohio (14-16 Overall, 12-6 Mid-American Conference) ended its regular season Friday with a win on senior night against Western Michigan (16-15 overall, 13-5 MAC) to clinch the #3 seed in next weekend's MAC tournament.
Set one was very poor for Ohio. The main struggle with this set was spiking, as the Bobcats shot a very poor hitting percentage of .118 as they struggled to get hits to land. Comparatively, the Broncos were very good in that category with a hitting percentage of .364. Western Michigan was also benefiting heavily from light tap overs that completely caught the Bobcats off guard. Many poor errors plus a bad shooting percentage led to Ohio losing set one 25-17 despite a late push.
Set two started very similarly to set one, as it was back-and-forth, and Ohio struggled with spikes. This time, though, Ohio didn’t let Western Michigan run away with the score, which led to a sprint between both teams.
Despite both teams' efforts to take a lead, they were both unable to. In the end, Ohio was able to get a flow going with their spikes, and four kills from freshman Bailey Blair helped the Bobcats prevail over the Broncos 25-23 to tie the game 1-1.
"Play better volleyball, and enjoy the moment,” head coach Kenzie Brinkman said when asked about what she said to her team before the second set to help them turn it around.
Ohio had a small lead throughout this whole set, but it wasn’t able to pull away. Everything the Bobcats were struggling with early was completely fixed; in the third set, they hit .316. The Bobcats' ability to outlast Western Michigan in the long points was what helped them finally pull away late in the set to get the comfortable win by a score of 25-20.
The Bobcats started set four very strongly, and it looked like they were going to completely run away with the game-winning set. After they built a strong lead, the Broncos started battling back aggressively.
Western Michigan was able to catch up with Ohio about halfway through the set, and then it became another neck-and-neck battle. Both teams wanted this set badly, and it showed when they entered extra points while trying to decide the winner. Ohio was able to scrape out the win over Western Michigan 27-25 as the Convo went wild.
In a big game, Ohio needed players to step up, and that’s exactly what happened. Freshman outside hitter Mady Long had a team second 13 kills to an incredible zero errors while hitting .542, and Blair had another outstanding game with 16 kills.
“I have so many people I can put into the game that are going to be ready to go,” Brinkman said. “I think for us to end it on another longer lineup of people that did what they did, and have people that still get taken out still cheering and being super selfless on the bench is the reason for our good success.”
The Bobcats ended their night with a ceremony to celebrate their three seniors, middle blocker Leah Rogers, opposite hitter Anna Kharchynska and setter Kendall White.
With the win following another good season by the Bobcats, they have punched their ticket into the MAC tournament, which will be hosted in Bowling Green. Ohio is currently the third seed and will look to make a run at a MAC title.
