The Convocation Center was rumbling late Friday night after a raucous crowd saw the final point scored for Ohio (6-8, 2-1 Mid-American Conference) in a 3-2 win over Toledo. For Ohio coach Geoff Carlston, it was just another five-set win until it was announced on the loudspeaker that he had won win No. 200.
The players rushed to celebrate alongside their coach. After the match, Carlston felt joy to have hit this milestone at home.
“Yeah, I’m glad, I’m glad to get 200 and it was in the Convo, that’s nice,” Carlston said. “But yeah, my family and I love this place, and there’s a lot of great memories here.”
In true coach form, Carlston did not fixate on himself long, giving props to his players’ fight and tenacity to come back two sets to one.
“We missed eight [serves] in the first set and 12 total,” Carlston said. “So, we obviously shored up our serving, and that made a big difference.”
Despite having a young team in comparison to a majority of its MAC opponents, Ohio and Carlston credit the team’s closeness with one another.
“We know our superpower is how close we are,” Carlston said. “I mean, we have a really strong culture as a team.”
The game wouldn’t have ended with the milestone had it not been for a string of crucial moments in the fifth set where Carlston saw tremendous effort and rigor from his team.
“The fifth set, we’re up, and then we shanked two balls,” Carlston said. “Those moments are important, and we need to sort of work through, so I was really proud of us for responding after that.”
While this win marks a major milestone for the Bobcats, Carlston recognizes this is a young team with sparse senior leadership. That fact has led to players like sophomore Kam Hunt stepping up into an on-the-court coach role, alongside the single senior on the court, Elizabeth Hoerlein, aiding Carlston.
With such a unique roster in comparison to previous years, there are new roles for everyone. In the words of Carlston, “there’s a lot of puppies everywhere,” and Ohio has been finding ways to continue to win while setting its younger pieces up for success.
Coach Carlston has a lot of faith in this team moving forward and knows even though MAC play will be challenging with such a young group, he has a lot of talent and leadership out on the court to help push through and bring back wins.
