ATHENS, Ohio — The Ohio volleyball team dropped its first home match of the season 3-2 to UTEP on Thursday (Sept. 7).
Freshman Kam Hunt (Sylvania, Ohio) earned her first start in The Convo and sophomore Chariti Winzeler (Toledo, Ohio) earned her first start overall.
The Bobcats overtook the Miners with ease after jumping out to a 6-0 run to start set one. Despite the Miners' best efforts, they could not keep up with the Bobcats.
Ohio's read of the floor was strong and it never lost track of where UTEP was on the floor. Graduate student Caitlin O'Farrell (Suwannee, Ga.) nailed a backset from Winzeler into a wide-open space in the UTEP defense to move the score up to 13-6.
The Miners tried to sneak a point in a gap in the Bobcats' front row, but freshman Kendall Hickey (Fishers, Ind.) dove to the floor and kept the rally alive. The ball flew across the floor as both teams tried to secure a kill, but it was the Bobcats who came out on the other side. Winzeler slammed the ball down to give the Bobcats a 10-point lead.
Ohio closed the door on set one 25-13 on a kill by O'Farrell.
"We pressed them, and the game is really easy when the other team makes a lot of mistakes," head coach Geoff Carlston said. "I thought we were serving really tough."
Set two was more challenging as the Miners caught on to the Bobcats. They traded points for the entirety of the set, and neither team achieved a lead greater than four points.
UTEP achieved set point, but sophomore Anna Kharchynska (Kyiv, Ukraine) kept Ohio's hopes alive with a kill. However, UTEP walked away with the set 25-21 to tie the match 1-1.
Set three followed a similar pattern as the two were locked in a stalemate. Ohio fought to break free, but UTEP followed close behind. Freshman Torre Kildow (Bethesda, Ohio) recorded her first service ace in The Convo to provide Ohio the energy shift it needed as Ohio started to inch forward.
Kharchynska contributed to the breakaway with a block to move the set to 13-11. The Bobcats kept their quick finesse to climb up to a three-point lead on a kill by O'Farrell. Ohio maintained a lead to set point, where Kildow delivered another service ace for a 25-21 win.
"Torre is doing some great things and I think her and Kam are kind of linked as freshmen trying to figure things out," Carlston said. "We need one of them to figure it out in a match like this, in these moments, because they're good and they can do it and we believe in them."
The Bobcats didn't jump out the way they needed to in set four, and the Miners took the set 25-20 to tie the match at two apiece.
Tensions rose as both teams returned to the court for set five. Ohio and UTEP went tit-for-tat as they had done all match. Ohio started to nudge in front after a service ace by Kharchynska, but UTEP was there waiting to attack.
The Miners tied the fifth set on two attack errors by Kildow. However, she eliminated both of her errors with two kills after a timeout. Senior Maci Watrous (Coppell, Texas) added to the Bobcats' attack with a service ace.
However, UTEP worked its way up to match point on a kill by Torrance Lovesee. Ohio managed to stay alive after UTEP made an attack error, but it was not enough to give Ohio a win. UTEP took set five 16-14.
"It's hard because we played such a high level of volleyball for such a long period of time, but it's the little things," Carlston said. "We've got stuff to work on tomorrow and stuff and next week because we're close."
Ohio will be back in action on Sept. 8 against North Carolina State at 6 p.m. in The Convo.
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