OHIO Volleyball
Bobcats face first conference loss in four seasons
By Katherine Bercik, Copy Editor
October 1, 2007 | 1:45 p.m.
"The new streak starts tomorrow," a man said while leaving the Convocation Center Friday evening. The Ohio University women’s volleyball team had just faced their first conference loss in four seasons, losing to the Miami University RedHawks 3-1. The loss ended the second longest active home-match streak in the nation at 47 matches.
Another streak that the RedHawks stopped was OU's 64-match winning streak against Mid-American Conference opponents, according to a press release.
"We've been planning all fall [for this match]," Miami coach Carolyn Condit said. "We did nothing more than play hard." Condit added the team took a lot of pride in defeating Ohio. "OU is a great team, and Miami wanted to be the team to beat OU," Condit said.
Although Ohio out-hit Miami .349 to .293 for the match, the ability to score points was what sealed the win for Miami.
Ohio won the first game 30-23, but Miami picked up the pace, winning the last three games of the match (29-31, 28-30, 27-30). In the second and third games Ohio had early leads but Miami managed to comeback.
With the pressure high in the fourth game, the Bobcats led 11-10 until a 5-0 surge gave Miami the lead. The Bobcats were never able to regain the lead, coming within range by only one point on several instances.
“This loss does not make Ohio a worse team,” Bobcat head coach Geoff Carlston said after the match, adding that the new focus was on playing against Bowling Green State University the next day.
A new beginning
After their disappointment the night before, the Bobcats defeated the Bowling Green Falcons 3-0 (30-21, 30-18, 30-20) Saturday evening in front of a school-record crowd of 3,689.
Although the number in attendance did not reach the team's goal of over 5,403, the state record held by Ohio State University, the team's main concern was winning the match.
"We were more focused," outside hitter senior Stephanie Blackburn said. “[After the loss to Miami], we knew we needed to win."
The most noticeable difference between Friday’s match and Saturday’s match was the Bobcats' blocking game. Throughout the first and second games the Bobcats scored points from consecutive blocking plays.
In the first game, Blackburn and middle blocker sophomore Jane Sytsma together blocked two attacks made by the Falcon's Kendra Halm, each resulting in a point for the Bobcats and bringing the score to 29-19.
In the second game the Bobcats earned three consecutive points with blocking plays made by Blackburn, Sytsma and middle blocker junior Amanda Andersen, and then Blackburn again. This brought the score to 23-16. Next came an attack error by Falcon sophomore Milica Askic, making the score 24-16, and yet another block by Sytsma made OU's lead grow to 25-16.
On Saturday morning the Bobcats watched several videos of the game against Miami, Carlston said. "The more we watched, the more we realized we weren't finishing the [blocking] plays," Carlston said.
Blackburn and middle blocker senior Melissa Griffin led the team attack with Blackburn’s match-high 12 kills, 11 digs and four total blocks and Griffin’s 11 kills (on a .526 hitting percentage and four total blocks. Sytsma had nine kills total and a season-high seven blocks while Andersen contributed seven kills with a .455 hitting percentage.
Setter junior Jill DeArmond had 21 assists while setter freshman Michelle Jantsch had 20. Playing as libero was defensive specialist senior Janice Matacic.
"I was really proud with how our team played tonight," Carlston said.
In order to make sure the team was focused on the match against Bowling Green rather than the loss against Miami, Carlston said he told the team to remember Miami cheering on their court and that they did not want that to happen again. He also told the Bobcats that the loss did not change them as a team.
"We knew we had to comeback," Griffin said after OU's win against the Falcons.
Blackburn said the loss on Friday does not affect OU's chance at winning the MAC, mentioning Bowling Green's 3-2 victory over Miami on Sept. 20.
"It's anyone's game now," Blackburn said. "We know we need to come out and take care of things to win the MAC."