Coach Neil Macmillan and the Bobcats will seek to make some second half adjustments and push up in the Mid-American Conference standings.
In the wild, bobcats and bears are reputable, prestigious animals.
In the Mid-American Conference, however, they are two teams going in opposite directions.
Coming off a 3-2 overtime win against Central Michigan, Ohio’s confidence has increased. The Bobcats’ offense has gained traction after overcoming a scoring drought in the middle of the season and will look to fine-tune their second-half play against Missouri State.
Coach Neil Macmillan said he was satisfied with the Bobcats’ play in the first half against the Chippewas, but wants to see them become less complacent in the second half moving forward.
Missouri State (3-14, 0-5 MAC) could be the antidote to this problem, as the Bears have given up 58 goals this season and surrendered almost 14 shots per game, on average.
During the past three seasons, the Bears have accumulated a 3-12 MAC record, but Macmillan made it evident the Bobcats aren’t overlooking the matchup.
“We still have a lot to play for,” Macmillan said. “We can still finish anywhere between second and fourth within the conference. So, there’s a lot to play for, but it’s another MAC game, and it’s senior weekend. We’re going to go out and continue to move ourselves forward with how we play the game.”
Also this weekend, Ohio (4-9, 3-2 MAC) will end its season against No. 8 Wake Forest — a team Macmillan coached from 1999 through 2004.
Wake Forest (10-6) is coming off a loss to No. 1 North Carolina, so the Demon Deacons will finish their season as the fourth seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Bobcats’ senior night game could take place on a cold, windy day in Athens, and Macmillan says he’s proud of the seniors’ contributions this season.
“They’ve all done a great job with keeping the team atmosphere at a top-notch level — all of them,” Macmillan said. “They had some work to do after last year in terms of that and they all stepped up and really surprised me with that. I’m very impressed with how little issues we've had away from the field, and that’s a great testament to all of them.”
As the regular season concludes, the MAC is wide open.
In the past four games, Ohio has scored 11 of the its season total of 16 goals, and if Central Michigan and Miami lose to Kent State and Ball State, respectively, the Bobcats could jump to the second spot in the conference tournament.
Sophomore Vicky Nase said the team is hoping to go into the MAC Tournament hot offensively.
“We’ve been practicing a lot lately on overall format and just getting everything down perfectly,” Nase said. “The teams doing a great job at getting really focus for game time and applying what were doing in practice to get it done.”
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