Deane Webb sat on the Ohio bench and buried his face in his hands.
Webb’s team, without its two captains, had dropped the first two sets to Oklahoma. It looked like Ohio was on its way to a second loss of the day and their third straight of the week.
But the Bobcats came out of the locker room for the third set of the match, and everything began to change.
Ohio slowly began hitting better, showing more emotion and playing high-energy volleyball.
Those changes helped erase a two deficit lead as Ohio defeated Oklahoma, 3-2, in The Convo on Friday night.
“Once we got to the fifth set, we hit a different gear,” Webb said. “When the moment is the biggest, we can be big too.”
The third set was not an easy one for the Bobcats to begin the comeback, and it almost didn’t happen at all. Down 8-2 at one point, they went on a 13-7 run to tie the set at 15 before squeaking out a 25-23 victory.
They were still facing adversity: down a set with a very young team.
The captains that are injured, Katie Nelson and Jaime Kosiorek, both went down in a 30 minute span, something Webb said he’s never had happen in his career.
Redshirt sophomore Carley Remmers, sophomore Lizzie Stephens and freshman Tia Jimerson attempted to replace those captains. Against Oklahoma, the three played well, but Jimerson came up big.
She finished with 16 kills, five of which came in the third set alone, and two blocks.
Jimerson stole the spotlight, but the resiliency of the team as a whole was what Webb enjoyed seeing from the young group he had on the floor.
And after his team won the fourth and fifth sets, Webb no longer had his face buried in his hands as he sat on the bench.
Instead, he was standing, clapping his hands as the Ohio Alumni Band played “Stand Up and Cheer.”
After the comeback win over Oklahoma was complete, he was able to celebrate for the first time this weekend.
