Ohio is set to start its season by competing in the Oregon Classic this weekend in Eugene, Ore., where the Bobcats will face three teams, including 2012 National Championship runner-up Oregon.
The team is matched up against Bryant University on Friday and Eastern Washington on Saturday before playing the No. 8 Oregon on Saturday as well.
“I’m looking forward to playing someone besides ourselves,” sophomore setter Abby Gilleland said. “You always question, are we really good servers, or really bad passers – or really bad servers and really good passers?”
Since it is a new season, it is tough to scout opponents, especially when you aren’t familiar with them.
The Bobcats have never faced Bryant University or Eastern Washington, but they fell to Oregon 3-1 last year in The Convo. Coach Ryan Theis said that the time preparing for early season tournaments is normally spent focusing on their own internal strategy.
“We spend the majority of the time on us, because we don’t know a lot about our upcoming opponents,” Theis said. “We have no familiarity with these teams other than Oregon last year, so we just talk about the little things that they do, but the focus is much more on us at this point.”
Serena Warner, a junior middle blocker, was a member of the Bobcats for the past two seasons and was one of the team’s top performers. She transferred to Oregon after last season but will be sitting out this weekend.
Warner played a lead role for Ohio last year, leaving the new squad of Bobcats with some big shoes to fill.
Theis said that the position is pretty much decided, but the competition really came down to a couple players.
“In Serena’s spot we will have Alexis (Pinson), who is a grad student,” Theis said. “Hannah (Burkle) has been competing for that job and is doing a very good job, but right now Alexis probably has that slight edge.”
Theis thinks that he has the best lineup since 2009, and with that comes excitement going into the first tournament. He thinks that it will be a solid building block to a great season, no matter the results.
“I’m really excited about this year, the group is awfully talented,” Theis said. “It’s just going to be about finding the right formula each week to win more.”
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