After a thrilling five-set victory over Bowling Green and a disappointing three-set sweep at the hands of Miami, Ohio will return home for the final week of the regular season.
Coach Deane Webb was impressed with his team Friday night, and realized the Bobcats expended a lot of energy to beat Bowling Green, possibly explaining being swept by Miami.
With only two matches remaining until the Mid-American Conference Tournament, the Bobcats must now focus on getting two wins and fine-tuning their play.
Getting it done
After being down 7-1 in the fifth set, Ohio stormed back to defeat Bowling Green 17-15 in the final deciding set.
The win showed the growth of the team, and its ability to look ahead, rather than dwell on what happened previously.
Webb thinks that provides an advantage to having a young team.
“Their ability to bounce back from losses is really, really good,” Webb said. “They’re able to move through (the Miami loss), learn from it and then move forward in a way that maybe an older team couldn’t.”
Better to have seen
Against the RedHawks, the Bobcats struggled.
The Bobcats were swept, and it was a much different story than the Sept. 29 matchup between the two, which was a five-set Ohio win.
Not all was lost, though. Webb noted the Bobcats are the most recent MAC team to play on Miami’s floor, which will host the MAC Tournament. Webb and his staff believe this gives the Bobcats an edge as they close down the regular season and prepare for postseason play.
“We’ll have a significant advantage of playing on that court,” Webb said. “I really see that as an advantage.”
Home stretch
Entering the final weekend of the regular season, the Bobcats currently sit in third place in the MAC East, behind Bowling Green and Miami.
For MAC Tournament purposes, however, the Bobcats can finish as high as third or as low as ninth. The positioning in the standings makes the weekend’s matchups with Kent State and Central Michigan elevated in significance, as if they didn’t have it already.
