Oct. 23, 2010

Final Stats

ATHENS, Ohio - Sue Jacobi had 22 kills and hit .415 for the match while Faith Robins hit .312 and tied a career-high with eight blocks, but Ohio fell on Saturday night in the Convo to first-place Northern Illinois, 3-1 (20-25, 25-27, 25-22, 22-25).

"We really put a lot of chips in (the Western Michigan match)," Theis said. "We had to. Our backs were against the wall going into the weekend. So, losing that was very emotional because we had to put our chips into starting to play well."

Ohio fell behind 5-2 in the first set but came back to even things early on at 6-6. The Huskies would take the lead and then slowly continue to tack more points to their advantage before taking their largest lead at eight, 22-14. Ohio got back into the first set with six of the next eight points getting two kills and two blocks by Lexie Hartnett and two blocks by Robins. However, NIU's early lead paid off as they needed just one more point in the set and got it to win 25-20.

Ohio's lead was as many as three in the early stages of the second set and still led 14-11 before NIU battled back to tie things at 15-15. The Huskies took a brief 16-15 edge before three-straight points for Ohio allowed them to retake an 18-16 lead on blocks by Katie Post and Jacobi. NIU would tie things again before kills from Jacobi and Michelle Jantsch made it 21-19 Ohio. However, leading 22-20, the 'Cats allowed four of the next five points and fell behind 24-23. Kills by Mandy Nichols and a NIU error made it 25-24 with Ohio serving to tie the match. Despite the opportunity, the Green & White squandered their shot and NIU scored three-successive points to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 27-25 win. Jacobi had a match-best nine kills during the set.

Ohio started the third set off with a renewed passion and jumped all over NIU for a 10-5 lead. Just like the previous two sets, NIU showed resolve and scored nine of the next 14 points to even the set at 14-14. Points by Hartnett, Jacobi, Robins and Katie Post gave Ohio a four-point lead at 22-18 and The Convo was rocking in anticipation of the 'Cats getting back in the match. NIU would rally and tie the set 22-22 but a kill by Robins and two joint blocks by Robins and Post made the match interesting with a 25-22 Ohio win.Robins finished with half of her blocks in the third set alone.

NIU quickly doubled up Ohio 8-4 in the fourth set and despite the lead being cut to one, the Huskies responded and took their largest lead at 17-10. Kills by Hartnett and Jacobi would get Ohio within three at 22-19 and a NIU error cut the deficit to two at 24-22, but Meghan Romo ended things with a kill and NIU won the match in four sets.

"It was really disappointing because we had multiple opportunities," said Robins, "We just didn't execute like we should have."

Jacobi was the only Bobcat with double-figure kills as Robins and Post added seven with Nichols and Hartnett each putting down six. Post picked up seven blocks and Hartnett had six as the Bobcats registered 15.0 total team blocks. Ohio was unable to hit over .300 as a team in any set with their best attacking percentage at .256 in the second set. Jantsch had a team-high 42 assists and Meryl Bender finished with a team-high 15 digs.

The Bobcats resume play against MAC East teams on Thursday night when they travel to Kent State for a 7 p.m. contest.