It’s often said that hindsight is 20/20. There’s a lot to correct when Ohio looks to the past, as they dropped both of last weekend’s season-opening matches. This time around, that learning experience might come handy for the young Bobcat squad, though.
Ohio coach Stacy Strauss said she is hoping for gradual improvement throughout the season, and with a zero sitting in the Bobcats' win column, there’s nowhere to go but up.
“The first three competitions, we’ve had against outside teams have allowed us to narrow our scope on what the issue are that we need to continue to address,” she said.
Strauss said she will make some tweaks to the roster but will be careful not to disrupt team chemistry that should be developing at this point in the season.
Ohio sophomore forward Liz Finley said the Bobcats have been focusing primarily on possession drills, and are itching for a win Friday against DePaul.
“We are extremely hungry,” Finley said. “We’ve been waiting for opportunities to get another win under our belt and hopefully start and continue winning.”
DePaul’s roster is similar to Ohio’s. The Blue Demons (1-1) graduated seven seniors last year, while Ohio lost ten from the program, the one of the largest amounts in team history.
Following their trip west, the Bobcats will return home Sunday for a clash against rival Marshall. Ohio corralled the Thundering Herd last year in a 1-0 win in Huntington.
Marshall is coming off a 2-1 overtime loss against James Madison Sunday.
Strauss said the Marshall matchup highly anticipated each season.
“It’s always a big battle,” she said. “It’s kind of a rivalry between the two teams and it’s always been a toughly fought match.”
Finley said the Bobcats should fare better this weekend than they did in their last set of games because, in part, players are more confident.
“We just have to fix our mistakes that we have and even though we didn’t get the results that we wanted we came out and practiced really hard,” she said. “I think we’re ready for this coming weekend.”
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