Sports

Ohio Sweeps Miami, Finishes 16-0 In MAC


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Ohio swept Miami University Saturday (25-13, 25-14, 25-15) to complete the Mid-American Conference regular season undefeated for the first time since 2006.

“16-0 cannot be topped,” coach Deane Webb said. “We talked about it all week. That’s our gift to the seniors. The jerseys and the flowers are nice, but if they can go 16-0 and walk out tonight knowing that it can’t be topped, that’s a special thing.”

Seniors Kelly Lamberti and Hannah Burkle led the Bobcats (23-4, 16-0 MAC) at the net recording 12 and six kills, respectively. Burkle also added four blocks.

“It exciting,” Lamberti said of the undefeated MAC record. “You can’t even do better than that so I’m glad to leave that behind in my last conference game.”

The RedHawks (19-10, 12-4) have been the only MAC team to take the ‘Cats to five sets in their earlier match in the season, but Saturday the match was much shorter.

Miami stuck with Ohio through the first half of set one, matching the Bobcats point for point. After an 8-all tie, the ‘Cats outscored the RedHawks 17-5 to win the opening set.

Ohio was even more dominant in sets two and three, gaining an early lead in each and never looking back.  The ‘Cats hit at a high .378 clip while Miami had 18 attack errors. Ohio also recorded seven service aces on the night, with three coming from redshirt sophomore Aubree Hord.

“We don’t really use the word perfection a lot because even today we weren’t perfect, but we do talk about being excellent,” Webb said. “And tonight, maybe in as big of a way as we’ve seen in a long time, we were excellent.”

There were a number of players who contributed to the ‘Cats success as every attacker hit above the .200 mark. Junior setter posted four kills and two service aces in the match while junior middle blocker Karin Bull added six kills and five blocks.

“We have so much more chemistry than any team I’ve been a part of,” Burkle said. “Everyone wants it. Everyone on this team plays for each other.”

The Bobcats secured the no. 1 seed, and a first round bye, in the MAC tournament, which will be held at the Convocation Center Nov. 22-24.