WVB: Buckeyes Drop 3-1 Decision to 19th-Ranked Michigan at Home – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women’s volleyball team (13-3 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) fell, 3-1 (26-24, 17-25, 16-25, 19-25), to 19th-ranked Michigan Friday evening in St. John Arena. OSU Katie Dull posted a team-high 18 points with 15 kills two ace serves and a solo block. Kelli Barhorst added 13 points for the Buckeyes with 11 kills, a solo block and two assist blocks. Michigan’s Alex Hunt recorded a match-high 19.5 points with 17 kills, one ace serve and three assist blocks. Jennifer Cross added 14 points with nine kills, two solo blocks and six assist blocks.
Set one opened with an Emily Danks kill and a Danks-Barhorst block for a 2-0 Buckeye lead. At 4-2, kills from Hunt and Cross tied the set at four. The set saw a total of 16 ties and eight lead changes. At 19-all, an Allie Schwarzwalder-Danks block and an OSU error made it 20-20. A Michigan error and a kill from Hunt tied the set at 21. An OSU error and a Danks-Barhorst block made it 22-all. The score reached 23-all with kills from Claire McElheny and Anna Szerszen. A Wolverine error gave OSU set point at 24-23. Michigan, with a Cross-Lexi Zimmerman block stopped the set point and tied the score at 24. A Barhorst kill gave the Buckeyes a second set point at 25-24. Ohio State won the set, 26-24, with a Szerszen kill to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The Buckeyes hit .444 for the set to .273 for Michigan.
Tied at one in set two, a McElheny kill gave Michigan the lead for good. A Cross-Hunt block, two OSU errors and a Cross solo block opened a 6-1 Wolverine lead. Michigan reached set point at 24-15 with a Courtney Fletcher kill. OSU stopped two set points with a Szerszen kill and a Michigan error to make it 24-17. An OSU error ended the set at 25-17 and tied the match at one set each. The Wolverines hit .370 to .027 for the Buckeyes.
Kills from Barhorst and Hunt opened set three at a 1-all tie. An OSU error, a Cross-McElheny block and an ace serve from Fletcher gave Michigan a 4-1 lead. A kill by Dull made it 4-2. Michigan followed with five consecutive points starting with a McElheny kill and an OSU error. An Ally Sabol ace serve, a Cross-Hunt block and a Cross solo block completed the run giving the Wolverines a 9-2 lead. OSU responded with the next four points to cut the Michigan lead to three at 9-6. The run started with a Schwarzwalder-Mariah Booth block and a kill from Dull. A Szerszen kill and a second Schwarzwalder-Booth block completed the run. Michigan expanded the lead to seven at 22-15. A kill from Barhorst made it 22-16. A Fletcher kill and a Maggie Busch ace serve gave Michigan set point at 24-16. The Wolverines won the set, 25-16, with a McElheny kill to take a 2-1 lead in the match. Michigan hit .385 for the set to .087 for OSU.
With set four tied at one, Buckeye kills from Schwarzwalder, Dull and Barhorst gave Ohio State a 4-1 lead. Michigan closed to within one at 7-6 off an OSU error. A kill from Amanda Peterson made it 8-6 OSU. Michigan kills from Molly Toon and McElheny tied the set at eight. A Kaitlyn Leary kill gave OSU a 9-8 lead. Hunt, with a kill, tied the set at nine. Kills from Hunt and Zimmerman gave Michigan an 11-9 lead. A Wolverine error made it 11-10. Two kills from Cross and an OSU error gave Michigan a 14-10 lead. The Wolverines held a 23-15 lead when three consecutive kills from Dull cut the margin to five at 23-18. A Buckeye error gave the Wolverines match point at 24-18. A Barhorst kill stopped the match point at 24-19. Michigan won the set, 25-19, off a Buckeye error to win the match, 3-1. The Wolverines hit .448 for the set to .289 for Ohio State.
In the match, Michigan hit .365 to .212 for Ohio State. Each squad recorded 54 kills and 49 assists in the contest. Michigan’s Zimmerman posted a match-high 39 assists with OSU’s Betsy Hone recording a team-high 30. The Wolverines had a 7-4 advantage in ace serves with Michigan’s Fletcher and Busch and OSU’s Dull sharing match-high honors with two each. OSU gave up 11 service errors to seven for Michigan. Defensively, the Wolverines had a 46-41 margin in digs with Zimmerman and Sabol sharing match-high honors with 11 digs each. OSU’s Sarah Mignin posted a team-high nine digs. At the net, Michigan had a 10-7 advantage in team blocks. Cross posted a match-high eight total blocks for the Wolverines with two solos and six assist blocks.
Ohio State returns to action at 7 p.m. Saturday in St. John Arena against Michigan State (9-5, 1-2).
Geoff Carlston, women’s volleyball head coach
On tonight’s loss
“We just didn’t play as well as we could have, but it happens. It’s a long season and we talked about some things after and we’ll continue to get better. We were just disconnected and it’s my job as coach to get everyone connected again. The dynamic needed to be tweaked and it just didn’t feel like our team today, but we’ll move forward. We had some people in some new roles and it was a little overwhelming. But we’ll learn from it and work out some things. Michigan just played better than us tonight.”
On tonight’s play and getting better
“There are times where as a coach you just sit back and watch it all happen. Unfortunately, tonight was not one of those nights. We addressed some things that we needed to. The crowd tonight was great. I feel the worst about not getting a win for them. We’ll get some rest and get ready for tomorrow.”
On tomorrow’s match against Michigan State
“They (Michigan State) are a physical team. You don’t get any breaks in this conference, but we’ll get some fresh legs in tomorrow. They’re very talented and have a lot of experience on the court. It’s ‘Dig Pink,’ so I’m excited about that and so are our players. We’re looking forward to it.”
### OhioStateBuckeyes.com ###
