Day two of the Green and White Invitational did not go how Ohio had planned, following a sweep of Liberty Friday. Ohio (4-7) lost both matches on Saturday, 3-1 to Oakland (4-8) and a 3-0 loss to Eastern Kentucky (8-4).
Coming off a win in straight sets the night before, Ohio looked to continue its hot streak into its Saturday double-header.
The Bobcats were very slow out of the gate in the first set. The Golden Grizzlies were out to an early 7-4 lead due to error-riddled play by the Bobcats. The strong effort from sophomore Kam Hunt with seven kills, one finely placed off the antenna, and an ace could not get it done for Ohio, as Oakland would close out the set with a score of 25-23.
The second set started with more of the same for Ohio, as the team trailed 6-2 early after an Oakland flurry at the net. Hunt kept up her steady work with another five kills and another ace to give Ohio a 13-12 lead.
Ohio needed to keep up the pace and junior Anna Kharchynska stepped up with five kills and a block to back a strong run of back-and-forth action. The two-point lead was enough for the Golden Grizzlies, who beat the Bobcats 25-23 once again.
“We need to better when it’s 23-all and 26-all, and we were at one point earlier in the season,” Ohio coach Geoff Carlston said. “We just need to win the two-point sets.”
The Bobcats from Friday night arrived for the third set against the Golden Grizzlies. An early flurry of points from several Bobcats around the net helped give them an early 9-3 lead.
The Ohio front line dominated this one up front with eleven kills from the trio of Hunt with five, Kharchyska with three and sophomore Olivia Gardner with three of her own. Ohio also got help from freshman Darbi Ricketts with two of her own.
The last point came from Olivia Gardner as she sent the ball across the net for her eighth kill of the afternoon, allowing Ohio to win the set 25-14.
The fourth set hoped to bring Ohio back to life and tie the match, but the effort was not enough to top Oakland. Unfortunately, Ohio had a handful of serving errors that led it to fall behind late and ended up losing another close one 25-23.
The team saw a few standout individual performances throughout the afternoon with excellent performances from Kharchynska with 17 kills, Hunt with 19 kills, and freshman Bryn Janke with a career-high 31 assists.
The nightcap for Ohio (4-6) saw them face Eastern Kentucky (8-4) to conclude the invitational.
Eastern Kentucky was a step ahead of every move Ohio made and used its lack of mistakes to capitalize on Ohio’s, gathering a 16-8 lead and forcing a timeout from Carlston.
A string of two blocks and a kill from Anna Kharchynska helped the Bobcats cut into the lead. Some back-and-forth points were not what the Bobcats needed as the Colonels were able to finish the first set strong with a 25-18 win.
Ohio fought back to bring up an early lead of 6-4. Anna Kharchynska led the way with two kills on this Bobcat run. A resilient fight from Eastern Kentucky brought it to a tie game at 10-10.
Ohio found a groove behind Olivia Gardner’s back-to-back kills and took a 15-13 lead. Eastern Kentucky, however, mounted another charge as it tied the set 17-17 before an aggressive Ohio team came out and found some space inside the tape for a couple of points, taking a 19-17 lead. Ohio, behind great two-way play from Anna Kharchynska, could not shake Eastern Kentucky, only leading by one point at 24-23.
A late review on a ball off the antenna slowed things down with the game in the balance, the call went the way of the Colonels as they took set two 28-26, leading the match 2-0 over the Bobcats.
The Bobcats started slowly again and fell victim to a 9-5 deficit. The Colonels used strong defense and control on rallies to keep themselves in position to attack and did just that, building themselves a 17-15 lead.
A kill by Hunt capped off a 6-2 run in favor of Ohio giving them a 21-19 lead as it tried to extend the match to a fourth set. However, Ohio once again came up a bit short with some miscommunications and timely hits by Eastern Kentucky, sealing the deal with a 25-23 final score.
Ohio will start its Mid-American Conference schedule next weekend against Akron with two games on Friday and Saturday.
