Sports

Ohio Volleyball Sweeps Zips

Posted on: Saturday, October 4, 2014

Ohio volleyball remained undefeated in Mid-American Conference play after defeating the Akron Zips Saturday night 3-0 (25-14,25-13,25-10) in Ohio’s annual “Dig Pink” game.

“I think it definitely inspired our kids tonight and it should,” Ohio coach Deane Webb said of the game supporting breast cancer awareness. “It’s a great cause and I’m just proud to be small part of that nationally with what we’re doing here.”

Ohio never trailed in any of the three sets, dominating every aspect of the game. In the victory, the Bobcats showed a more balanced offensive attack with senior outside hitters Kelly Lamberti and Hannah Burkle and junior middle blocker Shelby Walker each recording seven kills on the night.

“Kelly Lamberti has been getting a lot of kills so we thought that we should work on evening the court and balancing it all out,” Walker said. “I really focused a lot on my timing and everything this week in practice and everything went well.”

The Zips kept pace with the Bobcats in set one, cutting the deficit to two halfway through the set, 14-12. Ohio put together an 11-2 run to close out the set behind kills from Abby Gilleland, Jaime Kosiorek, Karin Bull and a service ace from Lamberti.

Set two unfolded in the same fashion with Ohio gaining its largest lead of the set – 13 points – from an 11-3 run halfway through the set. The ‘Cats recorded 15 kills from eight different players and were successful 76 percent of the time in side-out opportunities.

The third and final set started like the sets before it, with the Green and White jumping out to a quick 6-1 lead and never looking back on the way to a 25-10 victory. Serving played a key factor in that set, and all night for Ohio, as the team recorded six of its nine service aces in set three, three of which came from Gilleland.

“I really believe in serving aggressively and I always have for a lot of years of coaching,” Webb said. “It has been interesting watching different teams respond to it. A couple teams we’ve played lately– it’s been almost a shock in the first set.”