Ohio at Northern Illinois

[OU-OhYeah!]

Currently available on Gametracker (via niuhuskies.cstv.com/sports/w-volley/niu-w-volley-body.html).

#20 Ohio University (16-4, 8-1) takes on Northern Illinois (11-12, 5-4). The Bobcats won a decisive three-game match over West Division leader Western Michigan last night. Northern lost a five-game heartbreaker to East Division third-place team Kent State. Although the Huskies are at home, they face quite a challenge taking on the experienced Bobcats. By contrast, Coach Ray Gooden's team features six sophomores and two freshmen to go along with three juniors and two seniors.

[OU-OhYeah!]

Ohio wins Game 1, 30-21. After a torrid start (no hitting errors through the first half of the game), Ohio cools a bit but still hits a respectable .424. Melissa Griffin leads all hitters with 7 kills on 7 attempts. Stephanie Blackburn (.111) and Ellen Herman (.429) each have 4 kills. Sarah Petrulis has 2 aces. For Northern, Laura Baetzel (.375) and Jessica Schultz (.500) both have 4 kills.

[OU-OhYeah!]

Game 2 goes to Ohio, 30-16. The Bobcats show hitting symmetry with a .432 percentage. Melissa Griffin is having another fine night, with 16 kills (.700). Ellen Herman has 10 kills (.538). Stephanie Blackburn and Sarah Petrulis have 2 aces each. For Northern, Laura Baetzel (.333) and Jessica Schultz (.385) have 6 kills apiece.

[OU-OhYeah!]

Ohio drops just its fourth game in conference play (the other three in the loss to Miami), 30-28, despite outhitting Northern Illinois (21-14 in kills, .333 to .216). Three extra hitting errors and serving problems make the difference in a tight game. For the match, Ohio is hitting .397. Melissa Griffin leads the way with 22 kills (.714). Ellen Herman (14 kills, .276) and Stephanie Blackburn (10 kills, .273) are providing good support. For Northern, Laura Baetzel (.227) and Cassie Yates (.273) lead the way with 9 kills each.

[OU-OhYeah!]

Ohio wins Game 4, 30-18 to move to 17-4 (9-1 MAC). Northern falls to 11-13 (5-5 MAC).

Melissa Griffin leads all hitters with 26 kills (.706) to follow up last night's performance (19 kills). Ellen Herman finishes with 20 kills (.378) and Stephanie Blackburn adds 15 kills (.323) to go along with 2 aces and 18 digs. On the night, Ohio hits .447.

For Northern, Laura Baetzel leads the way with 13 kills, but hits just .171. Jessica Schultz has 10 kills (.381). The Huskies hit .221.

[letch0125]

Another MAC update; Kent completes a very nice road trip with a 4 game win over West Division leader Western Michigan tonight, after an intense night where they posted a 5 set win over Northern Illinois.

[OU-OhYeah!]

letch0125 said:

Another MAC update; Kent completes a very nice road trip with a 4 game win over West Division leader Western Michigan tonight, after an intense night where they posted a 5 set win over Northern Illinois.

The MAC Tournament is going to be very interesting this year. Currently, the top four teams are all in the East Division. Unfortunately, the seeding system (alternating back and forth between divisions) is going to force some of the best teams to play each other early.

[OU-OhYeah!]

A few more interesting -- particularly because it lasted four, not five, games -- notes regarding the match. Melissa Griffin's 26 kills were a career high. Her .706 hitting percentage was the second highest in her career (surpassed by a .727 mark earlier this season against Buffalo). Griffin needs just 32 kills to become the career leader.

As a team, Ohio had 87 kills, which is the fourth highest total in history, and 79 assists, which is the second highest total ever. The .447 hitting percentage for the match is fifth best.

Also of note, Meghan Simons had a career high 9 kills while hitting .467. Freshmen Melissa Szkutnik posted career highs in kills (7) and hitting percentage (.600).

Ohio plays at home next weekend versus Akron (Friday) and Buffalo (Saturday) before the big MAC showdown weekend (matches at Miami and at Bowling Green).

[strikestwice]

The East Division is definitely getting interesting with Miami and Ohio tied at 9-1 and then Kent State and Bowling Green both at 8-2. Two HUGE weeks coming up with Miami playing at Bowling Green on Wednesday and then having a weekend at home against Kent State and Ohio. Things should pretty much be settled after that. It's great to see the MAC being competitve again, and wonderful to see Miami starting a resurgence after being so dominant in the MAC in the last half of the 90s.

[vbally]

Miami at BGSU will be a fun match! It's an interesting year in this league!

[OU-OhYeah!]

vbally said:

Miami at BGSU will be a fun match! It's an interesting year in this league!

Yes, this should be interesting with Bowling Green already posting a win over Miami. Last year, Ohio played at Bowling Green the weekend before Halloween. BG had one of their biggest all-time crowds and they were very rowdy. It was a great atmosphere! Ohio won in five.

[lonewolf]

Next week should be the fun death weekend with Ohio and Kent traveling to Miami and BG...top 4 teams (record wise) in the conference playing each other.

[OU-OhYeah!]

Yeah, what a shame the top four teams in conference are all in the East Division and will have to fight it out to the death for seeding in the MAC Tournament. We could easily see a team with three losses getting seeded #3 or #4 in the East Division while a team with at least three losses will be seeded #1 in the West. West seeds #2-4 will go to teams with no fewer than five losses.

[bucky415]

A friend of mine used to work in sports information in the MAC. He said the conference office was pretty screwy. Things like this make me tend to believe him. The whole division thing makes no sense. Maybe the winner of the west can be number two, but after that, go with records.