Oct. 28, 2010
Final Stats
ATHENS, Ohio - Ohio received 19 kills from Sue Jacobi and moved back into sole possession of the MAC East Division with a 3-1 win at Kent State on Thursday evening. The Bobcats improved to 14-10, 6-5 in the conference while the Golden Flashes fell to 10-16, 3-8.
"Sue wanted the ball and wanted to kill it tonight," Head Coach Ryan Theis said. "She knows she has to score for us and basically is going to do anything she can to score it. If Katie and Sue are scoring, it's a lot for opposing teams to handle."
Katie Post finished second on the team with nine kills, hit .467 and amassed a career-high five aces, three in the third set alone. The junior was also tied with Lexie Hartnett with a team-high five blocks. Seven different Bobcats recorded kills and the team hit a match-best .353 during the pivotal third set. Michelle Jantsch had 30 assists, four kills on six attempts, and a team-high nine digs for the Green & White.
The first set was tied through the first 20 points and even stayed deadlocked through the first 30 points. After that, Ohio found itself trailing 18-16 before rattling off five of the next six points. The `Cats received two kills and an ace from Jacobi before Kent used a timeout.
Kills by Mandy Nichols and Post followed by a dual block from Faith Robins and Post gave Ohio their largest lead at 24-20. Another kill by Nichols shut the door on the first set, 25-22 in favor of the `Cats. Ohio picked up 4.0 total team blocks with Post and Nichols combining for seven individual blocks.
Ohio went behind by six in the second set, 15-9, but would then cut the lead to 22-21 on an ace by Post. Despite the rally, the Golden Flashes ran off three-straight kills to even the match at 1-1. Kent hit .306 for the set and Jacobi had six kills for the first time on the evening.
The Bobcats burst out of the break to take a 5-1 lead and continued to dominate, taking a 13-6 lead on the Golden Flashes midway through the third set. Ohio kept rolling along and took an 18-8 advantage on consecutive aces by Post to take their largest lead of the match to that point. After Kent scored four points in row, Ohio would string together six points of their own to lead 24-12. A block would eventually end things in favor of the Green & White at 25-13.
"In game two, we didn't adjust to any of Kent's small adjustments," Theis said. "They had multiple attacks that our defenders had opportunities to make plays on, but we were not capitalizing. For about two-thirds of that second set, those things occurred. So during the break we talked about what it takes to be a winning team. We have to make plays... we can make them, we have made them, we will make them. From then on, our kill-to-dig ratio was very high and we did a really nice job turning defense into offense."
Down 13-10 in the fourth set, Ohio would fight back and tie things for the first time since 4-4. The teams would exchange volleys over the next eight points before the `Cats finally broke serve and took a 20-17 lead on kills by Jacobi and Post and an attack error by Kent. Still ahead by three at 21-18, Ohio scored the next four points to win the match three sets to one. Overall, eight of the final nine points went to the Bobcats after the set was tied 17-17.
Ohio returns to The Convo for a match on Saturday night against Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m.
