Ohio opened its season at the Green Bay Invitational where it faced Fresno State, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Northeastern. It also traveled to Purdue for a match against the Boilermakers.
The Bobcats struggled and lost their first two match before sweeping Northeastern to capture their first win of the season. Ohio lost its third match of the weekend to Purdue and ended the road trip with a 1-3 record.
Ohio can’t recover from bad start
Fresno State dominated the Bobcats in the first two sets. The Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead in the first set that powered them to a 25-15 win. The second set was more of the same, and Ohio found itself down by two sets.
The lead proved to be too much as Ohio lost, 3-1 (15-25, 16-25, 25-16, 26-28), in its first match of the season Friday.
The Bobcats improved as the match went on, though.
After two sets of abysmal hitting, Ohio hit .500 and .308 in the final two sets. Lizzie Stephens led the way with nine kills in that stretch.
Poor hitting dooms Ohio against Green Bay
The Bobcats also fell behind by two sets against Green Bay and dropped their second match of the day Friday.
Ohio struggled to hit consistently, and it was costly. Ohio hit under .215 in the first two sets and hit .000 in the fourth in an eventual 3-1 (18-25, 25-27, 25-18, 17-25) loss.
Lizzie Stephens and Olivia Margolies hit .088 and .125 respectively. Stephens, who had 11 kills, also had eight errors.
Dahlias Bouyer shined most, though, and recorded eight kills on .412 hitting percentage.
Ohio sweeps Northeastern
The Bobcats finally got their first win of the season on Saturday against Northeastern behind performances of over .350 hitting by four different players.
Stephens picked the Huskies apart with nine service aces over three sets in Ohio’s 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-18) sweep. Vera Giacomazzi and Meredith Howe each added two service aces to set a season-high 15 aces for the Bobcats.
Ohio also limited Northeastern to a .095 hitting percentage.
Purdue is too much for Ohio
The Bobcats were strong early, but ultimately Purdue was too much as Ohio slid to 1-3 in its opening weekend.
Ohio took control of the match in the first set but lost the next three in a 3-1 (25-22, 17-25, 29-31, 19-25) loss Sunday.
One of the largest determining factors was that Ohio had 15 service errors, the highest total from the weekend.
Five of those errors came in the third set.
The third set was the longest and most crucial set of the season for the Bobcats. The set saw 18 ties and eight lead changes, which eventually ended in the Boilermaker’s favor. Ohio was unable to recover and dropped the final set.
Match 1
Winner: Fresno St. (25-15, 25-16, 16-25, 28-26)
Match 2
Winner: Wisconsin-Green Bay (25-18, 27-25, 18-25, 25-17)
Match 3
Winner: Ohio (25-18, 25-15, 25-18)
Match 4
Winner: Purdue (22-25, 25-17, 31-29, 25-19)
What’s next
Ohio (1-3) travels to Washington D.C. for the American Classic. Its first match will be against Temple on Friday.
