Sports

Bobcats Beat Bowling Green 3-0


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With a 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-14) sweep of Bowling Green on Friday, the Ohio Bobcats clinched the Mid-American Conference regular season title for the second consecutive season.

“The big thing tonight is wanted our juniors to leave here tonight knowing that they get to host the conference tournament next year as seniors,” Ohio coach Deane Webb said. “And that’s what tonight was about and that happened.”

The ‘Cats (22-4, 15-0 MAC) had a sluggish start in the opening set, allowing BGSU (7-20, 4-11) to keep within reach of a lead all the way throughout. Ohio held the Falcons to a mere .049 clip, but five service errors plagued the green and white. The ‘Cats strung together a 7-4 run to close the set.

The Falcon’s responded in set two, jumping out to an early 4-1 lead. The Bobcats experienced miscommunications and multiple errors in the set until outside hitter/ libero Mallory Salis took control. The sophomore scored five of the team’s seven points during a run that brought the set to a 17-all tie. Salis ended the match with 9 kills, all from the back row.

“Honestly I couldn’t even tell you how that happened,” she said. “It’s all about the team here. Once you get on a run and you know you’re getting those kills it’s all about adrenaline and knowing that my setter trusted me. It’s huge and gives me a huge advantage

Salis’ energetic play fueled Ohio’s play through set two and continued into the third set. In the final set, Ohio gained an early lead and never let up, cruising to a 25-14 win.

Junior middle blocker led the ‘Cats at the net, recording a game-high 13 kills on 22 attempts.

“The passing was really good tonight,” Bull said. “Abby (Gilleland) had a lot of options. She was able to use all of us six hitters instead of just being restricted to having the outside and the right side. She just had more options so we were able to be more in play.”