Sports
Ohio Volleyball battles back, ultimately falls short in five-set loss to Ball State
By: Marc Goldstein
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Sometimes in sports, there are teams that just have another team’s number. Seemingly, that is the case with Ball State (11-8, 4-4 MAC) and Ohio (7-11, 3-4 MAC). In a match that saw stretches of dominance from Ball State and equal stretches of resilience from Ohio, the final result was marred by a lengthy delay in the deciding fifth set.
In the first set, Ohio started out hot, getting a 5-2 lead that eventually ballooned to 8-4 with kills by Anna Kharchynska and Darbi Ricketts. Ball State would get back in the set by trading some points with Ohio, but the strength of Ohio’s attack would ultimately prevail, as it took the first set, 25-19, after a number of kills by Kam Hunt put the first set on ice.
In that first set, Ohio hit an astounding 0.412 as compared to Ball State’s 0.176. Additionally, the 11 kills for Ball State in the first set pale in comparison to the 17 for Ohio as it propelled itself to an early advantage.
That advantage, however, did not last very long. Ball State responded to Ohio taking a quick 2-1 lead by embarking on a 5-0 run to put itself in front. From there, Ball State would keep Ohio at arm’s length, not allowing Ohio to tie or take the lead for the rest of the set that Ball State eventually won, 25-16.
Ball State dominated the third set, starting fast with a 5-0 lead and never looking back. Despite Ohio’s best attempts at making the set less of a domination, Ball State had an answer to every attempt, hit or serve. Simply put, there was nothing Ohio would do to stop the buzzsaw that was Ball State in the third set. The final score for the set of 25-12 does not tell the full story of pure domination in the set. That domination is not the fault of Ohio; Ball State just had an answer at every turn during the set.
In the second and third sets, the Cardinals were nearly flawless. In the pair of sets, they had just one error and hit 0.500 and 0.448, respectively. The Bobcats’ 11 errors during that same span coincided with the best stretch for the Cardinals.
The fourth set appeared to be the final one in what appeared to be a coronation for Ball State. It jumped out to a 7-3 lead and looked to be well on its way to a match victory despite an early slipup. With the teams trading points, the score moved to 18-12.
At that point, a switch flipped for Ohio. From that point on, it rattled off a 7-1 run to tie the set at 19 apiece. During this run, Ohio got key kills from Kharchynska and Hunt while Ball State finally proved to be mortal by committing a trio of errors that led to Ohio points.
Ohio and Ball State then engaged in a number of tense rallies, trading points and the lead until the score was tied at 23. From there, Ohio capitalized on a service error and attack error to win the fourth set and push the match to a fifth set.
In the victorious set, Ohio head coach Geoff Carlston noticed the change in Ohio’s play that allowed it to regain some of its footing.
“We just started to serve tougher,” Carlston said. “Ball State was in a pretty solid rhythm and they’re a great passing team… They’re too good of an offensive team to not challenge them with the serve. I just think that we didn’t play great defense overall (during those sets).”
The fifth set was just like the second half of the previous set. The Cardinals and Bobcats took turns taking the lead and subsequently losing the lead in the set. With the set tied at six, the Cardinals scored three straight after two kills by Aniya Kennedy and an ace. The Bobcats would respond, getting the score to 12-10, Cardinals, but an unforeseen roadblock would halt everything.
A 15-minute stoppage occurred after the officials had confusion over a potential illegal substitution on Ohio. Ultimately, the delay did not amount to anything besides angst for both sides.
“As a sport that is trying to grow, to make that kind of mistake is frustrating,” Carlston said. “I felt bad for the fans. It’s tough to play volleyball after a 10-minute break because someone wrote the wrong number down. I mean we both had to deal with it. It’s not just us. It’s just frustrating as a volleyball coach. It should never happen.”
Delay or not, Ohio was unable to regain its footing that it had to work so desperately to find in the previous set. Ball State would finish off the final set, winning the set 15-11 and the match 3-2. Although the result was frustrating, Ohio has a lot of things to be proud of as it looks to its next match against Miami in the Battle of the Bricks on Saturday afternoon in Athens.