Ohio (12-13, 8-6 Mid-American Conference) came into the night ranked No. 8 in the MAC with an uphill battle into the tournament. If they played flawlessly the rest of the way, there was still a chance the Bobcats needed other factors out of their control to secure a spot. Those chances got significantly better Tuesday night.
With a sweep over Kent State (2-22, 1-13 MAC) and a Toledo loss to Bowling Green, Ohio has jumped to No. 7 in the conference. A losing tiebreaker to Toledo is the only thing keeping it out of the top six.
The first set started competitively. The two teams traded 1-point leads with a balanced effort from the Ohio offense to stay even. Kam Hunt, Olivia Gardner and Anna Kharchynska contributed 10 of Ohio’s 18 kills in the opening set, with other contributions from freshman Sierra Evans and graduate student Elizabeth Hoerlein.
With the set tied at 18-18, Ohio went on a 7-3 run, taking a 1-0 match lead.
The second set started similarly, though it didn’t take quite as long for Ohio to separate from its opponent. With the second set tied 10-10, Ohio started to put together a run. A 10-4 run, with a kill apiece from Hunt, Kharchynska, Hoerlein and Makenna Schafer, Ohio brought the score to 20-14.
Ohio would outscore Kent State 5-4 the rest of the way. A powerful kill from Hunt with Ohio up 24-18 netted a set point, giving Ohio a crucial 2-0 match lead.
Set three was the most competitive. Ohio got up to a 4-1 lead early with back-to-back Hunt service aces. However, the Golden Flashes rallied back, tying the set several times as the two teams traded runs.
From then on, the lead would switch back and forth. Ohio’s narrow lead would be thwarted by a late 4-0 run from Kent State, which gave it a 23-22 lead, the next Kent State point being a set point. However, its 23rd point would be its last, as Ohio netted a match-sealing 3-0 run. Two kills from Kharchynska, sandwiched around a kill from Schafer, sealed the deal for the Bobcats.
Kharchynska led the way in kills through the balanced effort with 14 on a .500 hitting percentage. In terms of assists, freshmen setters Bryn Janke and Lexi Grissett combined for 35 of the team’s 40 total. Ohio did an incredible job limiting errors at the service line, with five aces to two errors.
On Friday and Saturday, Ohio will host Buffalo, which sits No. 4 in the MAC. Following that, Ohio will play a season-closing series against No. 1 Bowling Green on the road, needing to net some crucial wins to earn a postseason spot.
