Sports
Ohio Volleyball: Bobcats suffer close defeat to Ball State
By: Curtis Feder
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Friday night, the Ohio volleyball team hosted Ball State at the Convo after returning from their four game road-trip.
This game was a special game that was in honor of breast cancer awareness month. The Bobcats wore their pink jerseys, and fans of both sides used their phones as flashlights to commemorate this occasion.
Ohio was unable to send their fans home happy, as Ball State swept the Bobcats. Ohio was competitive, forcing the Cardinals to score over 25 points in the final two sets, but it wasn’t enough.
Ball State started the first set of the match strong, winning five of the first six points. The Bobcats then woke up and clawed their way back to even up the set.
With Lizzie Stephens out, others had to step up, and in the first set senior Vera Giacomazzi rose to the challenge. She made her impact doing the dirty work, getting 12 assists and 4 digs in that set, but the Cardinals pulled away late and took the first set 25-20.
The second set was close and intense from the get-go.
Juniors Tia Jimerson and Macy Reihing got hot. Jimerson had 10 kills throughout the match, and made a huge impact blocking at the net. Reihling proved why she wears the libero jersey, and was a thorn in the Cardinals’ side, getting 16 digs in the game and keeping the points alive for the Bobcats.
The most influential point of the match came when Ohio was down 23-24 at set point and freshman Ciara Livingway made two pancake saves in the same point, which culminated in a Jefferson spike at the net.
Despite this momentum shifting play, with the crowd going wild, the Bobcats could not capitalize and Ball State took the second set 27-25.
The third set was a series of ebbs and flows. Ohio took an early 10-7 lead, and then Ball State came right back with five straight points.
Senior Maggie Nedoma started to dominate this set, and had her hands on the entire match. She finished with a team high 12 kills, had 6 digs, and served one of the two aces for the Bobcats.
After the constant battle between the two MAC heavyweights, the score was knotted up at 20 apiece, leading to yet another intense and nail-biting finish.
After the second straight set where 25 points was not enough to determine a winner, the Bobcats fell to Ball State 26-24.
Ohio suffered their third conference loss, and were swept for the first time all season. One thing that prevented the Bobcats from victory was the amount of errors committed in the match.
The Bobcats made 31 errors, and when the margin for error is as slim as it was against the Cardinals, it made all of the difference.
“When you play in a match like this, it comes down to those one or two little moments,” Ohio Head Coach Deane Webb said. “We had sixteen balls fly out of bounds, and when the game is that close you have to take care of those things.”
The Bobcats look to bounce back when they play against Toledo at home Saturday at 6:00 P.M.