OHIO Volleyball
Bobcats are back at it
Best of East face best of West
By Katherine Bercik, Copy Editor
October 15, 2007 | 11:25 p.m.
On Friday, Oct. 19 the Bobcats, whose record is 7-1 in the Mid-American Conference and 15-4 overall, will take on Western Michigan and then Northern Illinois the day after.
According to the MAC standings, as of Oct. 14, Western Michigan (7-1 MAC, 16-6 overall) is first in the West Division while the Bobcats are first in the East Division.
The Western Michigan Broncos defeated the Ball State Cardinals 3-1 (20-30, 30-19, 31-29, 30-28) and the Toledo Rockets 3-1 (30-25, 28-30, 30-24, 30-17) on Oct. 5 and 6 respectively. Although Ohio defeated the Cardinals and the Rockets within three games each, that does not mean they are going to defeat the Broncos just as easily.
“Western is the match we’re focusing on; we’re playing them first. They’re really, really athletic, and they’re a very strong team…they’re 6-1 or 7-1 so it’s certainly a big match,” head coach Geoff Carlston said.
“[We’re going to do] the same things, we’re going to pass, play defense. We did a decent job [against Toledo] on the defense today, so it’s a lot of the same stuff just different teams,” Carlston said.
The competition from the Broncos will come from sophomore libero Caitlin Strimel, sophomore setter Jillian Mitchell, sophomore outside hitter Katie Eberling, sophomore outside hitter Michelle Moore and junior middle blocker Leah VanEeuwen.
In their match against Ball State on Oct. 5, the Broncos were led by Moore, who contributed 18 kills, and Mitchell, who had a double-double with 12 digs and 11 assists.
Against Toledo, Strimel led the team with 20 digs while Mitchell had 55 assists. Eberling had 10 kills and eight digs, and VanEeuwen had a career-high of 11 kills and five blocks.
For Ohio’s match against Ball State, senior middle blocker Melissa Griffin led the Bobcat attack with a match-high 13 kills and a .591 hitting percentage. Freshman setter Michelle Jantsch and junior setter Jill DeArmond each had 17 and 13 assists respectively, while senior libero Janice Matacic collected seven digs in the victory.
Against Toledo, sophomore outside hitter Ellen Herman had a match-high with 13 kills. Griffin had 10 kills, while senior outside hitter Stephanie Blackburn had nine kills and eight digs. Jantsch had a team-high with 25 assists and eight digs while DeArmond had 16 assists.
Comparing Mitchell’s 55 assists with Jantsch and DeArmond’s combined 41 assists, along with Strimel’s 20 digs against Matacic’s seven, there is no doubt the match between Western Michigan and Ohio will be intense.
Although Ohio might get a small break the next day in their match against Northern Illinois – the Huskies (5-3 MAC, 11-11 overall) have a slightly less successful MAC record than Michigan – their rank is still higher than both Ball State (2-6 MAC, 3-17 overall) and Toledo (0-8 MAC, 3-16 overall). That match will also be more competitive than Ohio’s Homecoming matches.
The Bobcats will return to the Convocation Center when they face Akron Oct. 26 and Buffalo Oct. 27. Both games will be at 7 p.m. Anyone who does not have plans before heading to Court Street on Halloween Weekend, come on down to the Convocation Center and help the Bobcats scare away the competition.
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If you wish to follow the MAC competition, check out http://www.mac-sports.com.