With only two Mid-American Conference wins, Kent State is one of few teams that can equal their conference win total in sets and still not win a match.
The Bobcats (18-9,10-3 MAC) outlasted the Golden Flashes (9-19, 2-11 MAC) by scores of 22-25, 25-12, 19-25, 25-17, 15-11, and pushed their record to 6-1 when matches go to a fifth game.
“We seem to be good at closing in those situations,” head coach Ryan Theis said.
Ohio’s largest deficit in the first set was only four points, but it could not put together a point run to tie the score or take a lead.
It seemed that every time the Bobcats would score, the Golden Flashes would add at least two more points to their total to hold on to the lead.
Ohio seemed out of sync, scrambling around to dig balls hit by Kent State attackers.
The Bobcats won a controversial point after a set of digs that could have been ruled ball-handling errors. Golden Flashes’ head coach Glen Conley received a yellow card after protesting the no-calls.
Ohio could not utilize any momentum from that point, dropping the first set.
The Bobcats looked drastically different in the second set, taking an early 5-1 lead and not letting go.
The team looked dominant throughout the set and, at one point, had a 20-9 lead before evening the match at a set apiece.
Ohio finished the set with a .290 hitting percentage and 12 kills.
Much like the first set, the third set produced a similar result. Ohio fell behind and could not recover.
For the second time in the match, the Bobcats used an even-numbered set (four) to level the match. Again, Ohio had to battle back from an early deficit.
The Bobcats put up their second highest kill total in any set, with 13, and eventually took the set.
“I don’t know whether it’s a mindset (or) whether it’s back against the wall we’re a little bit better,” Theis said. “We’re a resilient group, but sometimes in the beginning of a set when we’re not playing well, it sticks through the whole set.”
Theis called a timeout during the fourth set to stop a Kent State run with his team down 6-3. He said it is easy to fall behind big when a team gets down, and the timeout helped reverse the momentum of the set.
Senior defensive specialist Nicole Staverman characterized the back-and-forth match as one that was hard to find a rhythm.
“We’re all creatures of habit,” she said. “Thursday nights aren’t normal for us. … It’s hard to stay consistent.”
nr225008@ohiou.edu
