The goal of garnering an NCAA Tournament bid has been achieved, but the Bobcats have no plans to stop battling.
Ohio (27-5) will compete in the NCAA Tournament starting Friday, when the season’s end will be put on the line for every match of the single-elimination tournament.
“We’ll be done when the last ball falls — whether that’s Friday, Saturday, or in two weeks,” coach Ryan Theis said. “We’re going to give it everything until that last ball falls and we’ll go down swinging.”
Ohio opens the tournament in Lexington, Ky., against Michigan State on Friday. If the Bobcats stay alive after the first round, they will face the winner of No. 15 Kentucky and Duquesne, which are also members of the four-team pool playing in Lexington this weekend.
The Bobcats’ region includes No. 2 Penn State, the winner of five NCAA Championships, including four consecutive titles from 2007-10.
Although Ohio will square off against competition that it doesn’t normally face, the Bobcats put together a 10-3 mark against nonconference opponents this season, including three matches against teams that are still nationally ranked.
The Bobcats defeated then-No. 8 Oregon in a straight-set sweep during the first weekend of the season, but then fell to North Carolina and Michigan in five sets each.
“We’re going to be a tough out for somebody at some point and as long as we’re playing well and having fun I think we’ll find it as a very rewarding experience,” Theis said. “We don’t have a lot of NCAA Tournament experience, but this is a pretty tough group.”
Theis led the Bobcats to the second round in 2009 and 2010, but Ohio hasn’t advanced to the Sweet 16 since 2005, which is the furthest the program has reached in the tournament.
This year’s squad features just two players who have competed in the NCAA Tournament before, including senior Mollie Geske and graduate student middle blocker Alexis Pinson, who was part of Arizona State’s run to the NCAA Tournament last season.
“Our only focus right now is Michigan State because they signify the end of our season,” Pinson said. “If we lose to them we’re done and it’s over with. We are literally playing as if we have no tomorrow, because we don’t.”
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