After having a few up and down performances, Ohio finally put it all together on their way to a sweep over Akron in the annual Dig Pink game.
With the win, the Bobcats now have a two game lead in the MAC East as they further distance themselves from the rest of the conference. Ohio tonight set the tone at the service line as they routinely got the Zips out of system.
Serving has been a point of emphasis this season and it is starting to show its worth as the Bobcats tallied nine service aces tonight. And unlike in games past where the serve production comes from one or two players, Ohio had five players that recorded an ace.
Balance was the theme of the night as junior setter Abby Gilleland spread the ball all across the court. Senior outside hitter Kelly Lamberti, and junior middle blockers Karin Bull and Shelby Walker lead the Bobcats with seven kills each. They found success attacking behind the setter getting the ball to Walker and Bull for open spikes.
“Our passers gave us the ball in system enough that we could run our middles,” coach Deane Webb said. It’s definitely the most balanced we have been. It’s great to have that kind of balance and it’s something that we strive for.”
Over the past few games, Ohio has been letting up after the first set. Saturday after making quick work of the Zips 25-14 in the first set, the Bobcats kept the momentum up from the first set. At 5-4 in the set, Ohio went on a 16-4 run to open the game up to 21-8. The Bobcats were able to close out the set 25-13 trading a few points with Akron at the end.
Ohio had their way on the offensive end as they had a season high .370 attack percentage. Walker led the Bobcats in that category with a .500 attack percentage. On the night, Ohio only had eight attack errors while Akron had 21 errors. Most of the Zips mistakes were mental as the Bobcats only had eight team blocks.
“Kelly Lamberti has been getting a lot of kills lately and we knew we had to balance out the court tonight,” Walker said.
The final frame proved to nearly spotless for Ohio as it didn’t record a single attacking error in route to a 25-10 victory. Also, the Bobcats had six of their nine aces in this set three of which came off the hand of Gilleland. The middle blockers closed out the match for Ohio as they recorded seven of the teams 12 kills in the final frame.
“I think our main focus was to go out there and have fun and just play for a bigger purpose than ourselves,” Walker said. “So I think we did that tonight.”
