With Miami right behind in the Mid-American Conference East, there was added incentive in the Battle of the Bricks for Ohio.
The Bobcats (12-4, 5-0 MAC) leaned heavily on their freshman outside hitter Jaime Kosiorek who’s team high 22 kills to lead the team to a five set victory. With this win over the Redhawks, Ohio has now won eight straight over its arch rival.
All seemed to be going to plan in the first set as the Bobcats cruised to a 25-18 victory behind nine kills from Kosiorek. Ohio jumped out to an early 11-2 lead in the set while only committing one attacking error along the way.
As the match reached the middle sets, the storyline changed as sloppiness on the offensive side for the Bobcats allowed the Redhawks to take control of the match.
As the second set was tied at seven all, Miami made its move as they went on a 9-2 run to take a 16-9 lead in the game. Five of the Redhawks nine points in the run came by the way of Ohio attacking errors as the Bobcats had trouble scoring against the height of Miami. After the run by the Redhawks, Ohio never came within three points of Miami as it took the set 25-21 to tie up the match.
The second set has been a struggle for Ohio all year and the trend continued tonight. Although the Bobcats have struggled in the second frame they have always been able to respond when the third set comes around. Friday however, they were unable to find it as Miami opened up a 12-2 lead in the third set again aided by errors on Ohio’s offensive side. Despite a late charge by the Bobcats, the Redhawks were able to take a 25-20 set victory.
Trailing the arch rival Redhawks 2-1, Ohio had to win the fourth set to extend the match. The Bobcats used an 8-2 run to take a 13-7 lead in the set. That’s all the advantage they would need holding onto to a consistent advantage before taking the 25-16 set win.
Their job was not done yet though as they still needed to win the fifth set in order to take the Battle of the Bricks. With the game on the line, Ohio turned to their captain in junior setter Abby Gilleland whose 10th kill of the night sparked a 6-0 in the final frame giving the Bobcats a 13-7 advantage. The match ended much like it started with a Jaime Kosiorek kill as Ohio took the final game 15-8 to complete the comeback against Miami.
Gilleland recorded her second career triple-double with 11 kills, 44 assist, and 15 digs. The Bobcats needed the performance from the AVCA All-American as the Redhawks tried to take out senior outside hitter Kelly Lamberti who lead the team in digs with 26. Lamberti also had 18 kills on the night despite Miami’s focus to take her out of the game.
This win further expands the Bobcats lead in the MAC East. Now five games through conference play, Ohio has a three game lead in the East division. The Bobcats are now just one of two teams in the MAC who is undefeated in the conference slate with the other being Northern Illinois (12-7, 5-0) who defeated Eastern Michigan (11-8, 2-3) in five sets Friday.
