With the Mid-American Conference schedule opening this weekend, Ohio is ready to take the court and begin its attempt to win the MAC East for the tenth consecutive season.
“I think there is an excitement in this team to fight and push for a MAC Championship,” Ohio coach Ryan Theis said. “I hope that means we are ready for a good start this weekend as we open play.”
The Bobcats (5-7) will travel to Bowling Green Friday and Miami Saturday, as the team is looking to overcome losses in their last two matches, ending a 13-set winning streak.
After competing in four away tournaments in the first four weekends, Ohio will take on Bowling Green (4-7) in the Falcons’ first home match of the year.
The Falcons are led by junior left side Paige Penrod, named the MAC East offensive player of the week this week, ending Ohio outside hitter Kelly Lamberti’s two-week streak of receiving the honors.
Penrod is the team leader in kills, with 169, leading the MAC in kills per set with an average of 4.12. Setter Laura Avila also has stood out with 423 assists thus far.
Ohio was victorious in both matches in 2011, having won seven consecutive matches against Bowling Green, last losing in 2008.
After taking on rival Bowling Green, the Bobcats will then hit the road to take on another MAC rival at Miami.
Miami (5-8), like Ohio, lost their final two matches last weekend, which ended a four-match winning streak. The Redhawks start their MAC schedule Friday evening against Kent State before the Bobcats will come to town.
Rising to the net for Miami has been outside hitter Meg Riley, who leads the team with 161 kills, 71 more than the next best on the team.
Ohio, which has dominated the MAC in recent years, has won five consecutive matches against the Redhawks, including all three meetings between the two schools last season.
Despite recent supremacy, both BGSU and Miami are rivals for the Bobcats. However, because of a young roster full of out-of-state players, Theis and his staff have made extra efforts stressing the historical bad-blood.
“It’s a bit of a rivalry opening weekend going at Bowling Green and Miami,” Theis said. “The kicker for us and rivalries is we don’t seem to have kids from Ohio and the Ohio area, so a rivalry to them maybe doesn’t mean as much.”
After winning 13 sets in a row before losing the last two matches, the Bobcats are optimistic the tough out-of-conference schedule has prepared them to be more consistent in MAC play.
“I think we need to be efficient and maintain a consistent level of play,” said Ohio middle blocker Serena Warner. “Sometimes we have up-and-downs, so we need to just try and stay at a high level.”
cl027410@ohiou.edu
UP NEXT:
OHIO at Bowling Green
7 p.m. Friday
OHIO at Miami
5 p.m. Saturday
— Friday is Bowling Green’s home and MAC opener.
— Redhawks lost all three matches against Bobcats last season.
— Ohio finished out-of-conference play 5-7, with four losses to ranked teams.
