Sept. 23, 2005
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ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio volleyball team opened the conference schedule with a 3-0 (30-19, 30-15, 30-21) sweep of Akron in front of a record crowd.
"It is huge to start off the conference with a win," Head Coach Geoff Carlston said. "I'd much rather not play catch-up in this conference."
A volleyball match-record of 861 people turned out to see the match and the Bobcats did not disappoint the home crowd, sending Akron home with its eighth loss of the season.
"The team loves playing here and a big part of that is having fans in the stadium," Carlston said. "There is some excitement and people are starting to recognize this group and the hard work they have done."
Melissa Griffin (Whitehall, Mich.) paced the Ohio attack, matching her season-high with 16 kills. Julia Winkfield (Newark, Ohio) added 13 kills while hitting at a team-best .500 clip. Winkfield recorded a team-best three aces to move into fifth place on Ohio's all-time aces list with 108. She trails fourth place holder Briana Adamovsky by seven aces.
Savanah Parra (Temecula, Calif.) played a strong all-around game, setting the Bobcat attack with 46 assists. She added 12 digs for her third double-double of the season and a career-best five kills. Stephanie Blackburn (Cincinnati, Ohio) led Ohio with 19 digs while Michaele Blackburn contributed 15.
The Bobcats controlled the match throughout, going up 5-4 in the opening frame and never looking back. Ohio gradually increased its lead, going up by double-digits at 21-11. Winkfield connected on her fourth and fifth kills of the first game to give the Bobcats a 30-19 game-one win.
It was more of the same in the second game with Ohio grabbing an early 8-3 lead. Akron was able to stay within five points before the Bobcats finished the frame on a 12-1 to take the game 30-15.
Ohio never gave Akron a chance in the third and deciding frame, taking a 10-3 lead and running with it. The Bobcats pushed the lead to 28-15 when the Zips went on a mini-run to cut the gap to 29-21. Parra's fifth kill of the match put Akron away and extended Ohio's home winning streak to 30 matches.
"Savanah ran a pretty smooth offense and our ball control was pretty good," Carlston said. "We served pretty tough and that stressed Akron out quite a bit. It wasn't anything flashy tonight, but for the most part, we executed pretty soundly and kept our composure."
Ohio improves to 11-2 on the year while Akron falls to 5-8.
The Bobcats are in action tomorrow when they host Buffalo at 6 p.m.
