The Mid-American Conference schedule kicks off as the road to the conference tournament begins this week.
For the first time since it was knocked out of the conference tournament last year, Ohio will face Mid-American Conference opponents this weekend. Ohio faces Miami on Saturday and Bowling Green on Friday.
Miami is right on the heels of Ohio in the East Division standings with an 8-5 record, while Bowling Green is in fifth place with a 4-9 record.
THE MACTION BEGINS
The road to Athens, and the conference tournament, begins this week as the conference schedule for teams begin. Akron versus Buffalo and Ball State versus Toledo are the first games on Thursday.
Besides Ohio's contests, some interesting match-ups to watch are •Miami versus Kent State — a rematch of last year’s quarterfinals — and Western Michigan versus Eastern Michigan, the defending champions' first conference match-up of the year.
WESTERN MICHIGAN’S SLOW START
After Western Michigan upset top-seeded Ohio and won the title game in last year’s conference tournament, it has struggled out of the gate this season. The Broncos are 4-11, earning two wins in the past week against Eastern Illinois and Dartmouth.
Western Michigan will face Eastern Michigan — the leaders in the West Division— on Friday to begin its conference schedule.
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STRONG LIKE A BULL
Ohio senior middle blocker Karin Bull was named Mid-American Conference East Division Defensive Player of the Week, the league announced Tuesday. This is the Bull's third such honor of her collegiate career. She had 19 blocks and a .463 clip this past weekend at the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational.
This is the third consecutive week that an Ohio player has earned the honor, as senior libero Meredith Ashy has been named the Defensive Player of the Week the past two weeks.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We're 0-0 in the MAC right now, just like everybody else. Six of our players weren't even here for last year. They weren't a part of any of that. Some of the players that were, they've now graduated and moved on. It's a different team. It's a different year. We know that we have good opponents this weekend that are maybe a little bit different styles, a little different strengths. Maybe different schedules, even, that they've played coming in. But, we know that they're both very good opponents. We need to prepare well this week for each of them," Ohio coach Deane Webb said.
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