Ohio kept its MAC dominance alive this weekend as it traveled to Mount Pleasant to take on the equally hot Central Michigan Chippewas. Going into this matchup, these were two of the hottest teams in the MAC. The Chippewas were 5-1 in their last six games, and the Bobcats were 7-1 in their last eight. Ohio stayed hot, as they swept Central Michigan on Friday and beat them 3-1 on Saturday.
These two wins on the road improved Ohio’s overall record to 11-15 and its much more important MAC record to 9-5, which moved them up to fourth in the MAC. Ohio is sitting comfortably in the tournament standings with only four more regular-season games. The Bobcats have not necessarily clinched the tournament yet, but they are very close.
Despite a clean 3-0 sweep from the Bobcats on Friday, the game was very close. To put in perspective how close the game was, only eight points separated Central Michigan from sweeping Ohio.
The Bobcats took a five-point lead early in set one and looked like they were going to run away with it. But then the Chippewas scored six straight to take a one-point lead. After that long run from Central Michigan, the set went back and forth.
The teams traded points until they reached extra points. Ohio prevailed over Central Michigan in set one 29-27 with the help of junior Emily Waddell, junior Gentry Brown and freshman Mady Long, who combined for 12 kills in the set.
The second set was back and forth once again. The largest lead in this set was four points by Ohio that closed out the set. Ohio didn’t follow its regular game plan of spreading the kills around, but rather individual dominance. Freshman Bailey Blair had 40% of her team's second set kills with six. This great second set performance by Blair helped Ohio take set two 25-21.
Ohio got back to its game plan of spreading the love in set three as it had seven players record a kill, including Brown, who had over a quarter of the third set kills with five. Ohio led for most of this set, but Central Michigan tried to make a push. Ohio would fend off Central Michigan’s push and take set three 25-23 to sweep Central Michigan in game one.
Central Michigan was actually able to win a set in game two, but the point differential for the whole match was +8 in favor of Ohio, just as it had been Friday night. Following the trends from game one, the Bobcats saw set one go into extra points as Ohio would take it 28-26 to get an early 1-0 lead. Brown recorded six kills in this set to add on to her great weekend.
Continuing to mirror the first game, Ohio took set two by four points, 25-21. Due to many Central Michigan errors, Ohio didn’t need too many kills to get the win, as they only had 11. Out of those 11, junior Torre Kildow had four.
In the third set, Ohio looked to end its road trip with two sweeps, but Central Michigan didn’t let that happen. The Chippewas knew how important these games were, so they weren’t going down without a fight and took set three 25-21.
This third set was a much bigger blowout than the score tells. The Chippewas would take big point leads multiple times throughout the game, and when Ohio tried to make a run at the lead, Central Michigan did not bend.
After a bad loss for Ohio in set three, it needed to close it out in set four, and that’s exactly what the team did. The 25-19 set four win was the biggest win of the weekend in terms of point differential on either side.
Surprisingly, this set was very close, being neck and neck the whole time. Late in the game, Ohio only had a one-point lead over the Chippewas, leading 19-18. In one of Ohio’s best closeouts of the season, it would score four straight to end the game and give the Chippewas their second loss of the weekend.
Ohio setter sophomore Bryn Janke recorded 51 assists on the weekend to hit the outstanding milestone of 1000 career assists. This was just the cherry on top of another great weekend for the Bobcats.
Ohio is back on the road next weekend. The Bobcats are traveling to DeKalb, Illinois, to take on the Northern Illinois Huskies (11-12) as they try to officially clinch a spot in the MAC tournament.
