If there is such a thing as momentum, the Bobcats certainly don’t have much of it.
Ohio (8-9, 3-3 Mid-American Conference) will play its first game of the MAC tournament at Central Michigan’s field against Kent State (9-8, 5-1 MAC), which is on a six-game winning streak.
If that bothers the Bobcats, however, they aren’t showing it.
“I really don’t think we’re a team that plays off of momentum,” sophomore Elena Curley said. “I think we go into every game fired up as if we won 10 before.”
However, Ohio does have the benefit of having seen Kent State before. The Bobcats lost to the Golden Flashes, 2-1, on Oct. 23 at Kent. This time, the Bobcats will look to improve from their last visit.
“I think we’re preparing and looking at the video we have and improving on the things we can improve on,” sophomore Rachel Kho said. “And trying to exploit their weaknesses.”
One of the aspects of Kent State that Ohio stressed was the Golden Flashes' tendency to utilize fast breaks.
“Kent is a very direct team," coach Neil Macmilan said. "They try to sit behind the ball defensively and create some space in behind their opposition to execute their fast breaks."
Besides trying to stop Kent’s fast breaks, Ohio will look to improve its ball movement in the semi-final game. The Bobcats said recent losses were caused in large part by poor ball movement.
“The best thing for us is to pass the ball through the mid-field,” Macmillan said. “If we can utilize all four mid-fielders and pass the ball sideline to sideline, we can execute against any team.”
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The Bobcats will look to ignore the momentum factor when the ball drops Friday against the Golden Flashes, as last time the two teams played, Ohio fell behind early.
“We can’t give them a two-goal lead,” Macmillan said. “We won the rest of the game 1-0 but were already 2-0 down only seven minutes in.”
The winner of the Ohio-Kent State semi-final will compete in the MAC championship game against the winner of the other semi-final: Miami (11-7, 5-1 MAC) or Longwood (7-10-1, 3-3 MAC).
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