Sports
Bobcat Volleyball Keeps Rolling, Downs Toledo 3-1
By: Max McDulin
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At the Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio Bobcat volleyball defeated the Toledo Rockets on Saturday night 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 25-10). The win is the Bobcats 11th in a row, and it moves them to 18-3 overall and 8-0 in the Mid-American Conference.
The fourth set was Bobcat domination at its best. After making 23 errors in the match prior to the fourth, Ohio made no errors and as a team hit at an incredible .652 clip. It took very little time to dispatch the Rockets as the Bobcats took the set 25-10, and along with it the match.
The first set was a back and forth affair. Ohio early on seemed to be leaving some spaces open allowing Toledo to convert some big plays. Libero Meredith Ashy was able to guide her team back into a defensive rhythm though as the ‘Cats eventually took the set 25-21 and held Toledo to a .114 hitting percentage.
Ohio gave a highly uncharacteristic performance in the second set, as the Bobcats made 11 errors. Oddly enough though, was that Ohio still almost won the set. But eventually the ‘Cats would drop the second 23-25.
The third set was a much cleaner performance as Ohio’s errors went down from that high number of 11 to six. The ‘Cats took the set 25-19. That number of errors continued to go down leading to a clean fourth set.
After a thrilling five set victory on Friday night the ‘Cats took care of business much quicker against the Rockets thanks in large part to an impressive performance from Abby Gilleland.
Gilleland had another big night statistically as she collected 52 assists and 13 digs. She is having the type of year the Bobcats have become accustomed to in Athens, and is by far and large the favorite to win Mid-American Conference Player of the Year. If she were to win it, she would become the first player to win that award three straight times.
Next up for the Bobcats will be a road trip, as they’ll head to Western Michigan on Friday for a 7 p.m. match, and that will be followed by a big matchup at Northern Illinois on Saturday.