Sports
Ohio Volleyball: Bobcats Come Back from the Brink to Win Another Five-Set Thriller
By: Curtis Feder
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — After falling behind two sets to one against Toledo in The Convo on Wednesday, the Ohio volleyball team came back with their backs against the wall to defeat the golden rockets in a spectacular five set affair.
The Bobcats came into this matchup a little worse for wear with their intense conference schedule.
“We’re pretty beat up right now,” Ohio head coach Deane Webb said. “When you look at this week and you know you are going to play six matches in nine days, that’s not normal. That’s not something you normally ask bodies to do.”
To put insult to injury, Ohio’s last two games went the distance with their most recent match against Kent State going five sets the night before. The Bobcats also played the match without starter and key contributor Lauren Park. Despite all these negative factors inflicting upon Ohio’s potential performance, there was still a match to play with playoff implications on the line.
The way the first three sets went were almost polar opposites in alternating fashion. In the first set, Ohio played very sloppy, committing eight errors and having a .061 kill percentage. Despite the poor play from the bobcats, Toledo was not clean with their play either to keep Ohio hanging around. After it looked like the bobcats had a chance to steal the set after going on a 6-0 run late, Toledo pulled away and won it 25-22.
The second set flipped the script. Ohio was extremely efficient having 13 kills in 27 attempts and limited their errors to just two in the set. They ended up evening up the game at one set apiece winning the second set 25-22.
The Bobcats reverted back to their sloppy play from the first set in the third, piling on the errors and not a lot of kills to match. After Toledo won that set 25-22, Ohio found themselves needing to win two sets in a row to come out victorious.
Like the previous three sets, the fourth was tight from the first serve. It got to a point where timeout was called, and Ohio was up 20-19 with the game in the balance. Their play would determine whether they would lose or live to fight another set.
The Bobcats responded in a big way coming out of the timeout with redshirt freshman Caitlyn O’Farrell scoring the bobcats last three points with three kills to send the match to a race to 15 in the deciding fifth set.
Starting the fifth set, the worn-down bobcats looked fresh as a daisy blazing out to an 8-2 run. Junior Mariana Rodrigues had four kills in this set, and she finished with a career high 26 kills. Senior Tia Jimerson, who got her 1000th kill on Tuesday, contributed to the cause for Ohio as well with eight kills, a block and an ace.
The Bobcats blew Rockets out of The Convo in the fifth set taking it with ease, 15-4. After playing their third straight match that went the distance, Ohio came out victorious with a final score of three sets to two.
Ohio will hit the court again Friday at home as they take on Western Michigan at 6 p.m.