Coach Deane Webb isn’t keeping secrets when it comes to revealing who his favorite player is this season.
It’s Mallory Salis.
The senior captain has transitioned from playing so poorly that Webb placed her at libero, where she wasn’t allowed to take swings, to coming off her fourth consecutive match with 20 or more kills.
“Every year, my favorite kid is the kid that works the hardest,” Webb said. “It’s respectable, it’s honorable.”
Ohio (10-10, 6-2 MAC) is riding on the recent offensive hot streak of Salis as they take on Northern Illinois and Western Michigan (8-13, 3-5 MAC) at The Convo this weekend.
Northern Illinois (16-4, 8-0 MAC) lost to Ohio in the Mid-American Conference tournament title game last year, but are currently tied with Miami for the best record in the conference this season.
But with the play of Salis and her urgency to win, the Bobcats are attempting to make a push to the top of the conference.
Ohio currently has the second best record in the conference.
“You look more at the bigger picture when you’re a senior and this is your last season,” Salis said. “You think more about leaving a legacy and leaving happy no matter what the outcome is and knowing that you enjoyed your four years here as a volleyball player.”
In his 20 years of head coaching, Webb hasn’t seen a player perform quite like Salis has in recent weeks.
On Sept. 16 against Radford, she had more errors (six) then she did kills (five) and recorded a negative hitting percentage.
Just a little under a month later on Oct. 15 against Ball State, she had 25 kills and a .311 hitting percentage.
“I’d be willing to bet that 98 percent of coaches have never seen (this type of performance) either,” Webb said. “It’s just not normal that someone goes from struggling enough to where we’re not letting her hit to doing what she’s doing now.”
But Salis knows that it’s going to be a team effort this weekend.
Northern Illinois has the best record in the conference coming into the weekend, but Ohio is still going to have the confidence of the defending champions.
“We’re trying to build on the previous record and meet our ultimate goal,” Salis said. “Which is the MAC championship.”
