Ohio defeated American to conclude its regular season.
The Bobcats traveled to Washington D.C. hoping to spoil the senior night festivities of the American University Eagles.
Ohio did just that, edging out American in an 18-16 win Friday.
The win allowed Ohio to bring the regular season to a close riding an eight-match winning streak into the postseason.
Head Coach Joel Greenlee said he was happy to get the win, but knows there is still much work to be done as Ohio begins its push to the postseason.
"We lost some battles but we won the war,” Greenlee said. “You have to take the positives away from today, but we need to be more active, we need to take more attempts.”
The contest did not get off to a fast start for Ohio with Cullen Cummings picking up a 6-4 win to start the match before Ohio's Spartak Chino lost 3-1 in his match.
Austin Reese was also on the losing end, losing a lopsided 6-0 match against Mitchell Wightman. After three matches, Ohio found itself down 6-3.
Cody Walters gave the Bobcats some momentum with his 14-1 trouncing of American’s Michael Eckhart, giving Ohio four much needed team points.
From there, the match continued to go back-and-forth.
American’s Jason Grimes would pick up a narrow 3-2 win at 184-pounds. Ohio's Phil Wellington responded with a win of his own, with Wellington beating Jeric Kasunic, 6-2. Jesse Webb added to the Bobcats lead after picking up an overtime victory, winning 3-1.
The team score 13-9 with just three bouts remaining.
No. 14 David Terao was a difficult match for Ohio freshman Shakur Laney. Terao earned a major decision over Laney by score 20-8, tying the score at 13 with two bouts to go.
Cameron Kelly then made quick work of James Giaccia winning by technical fall 16-0. The win put Ohio up 18-13 with one match reaming. Despite a 5-2 defeat from Noah Forrider, the Bobcats held on to win.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="b3b8b556-d089-11e5-bafa-03723340ba7a"}}
The Bobcats will be back in action March 5, when they hit the road for the MAC Championships held in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
“My expectations going into the MAC tournament is to win it," Greenlee said. "We’re going to go into the tournament with the attitude that we’re going to win it and then make changes from there.”
@MLLRC93
