Friday at  7    Texas A&M

    Now in the SEC, the Aggies are 2-1, sweeping Iowa and Tulane with a loss to UTSA.

 Saturday at noon   Virginia Commonwealth

    Out of the Atlantic 10, the Rams are 1-2, including a loss to former Ohio coach Theis.

 Saturday at 7   Virginia Tech

    The Hokies, out of the ACC, are 1-2.

 The Cats are 1-2 after two 'good' losses to top 20 teams. They opened the season in front of over 7000 fans against Hawaii who draw some of the top crowds in the nation. Ohio does well in attendance too, being in the top 25-30 each year. This community really gets behind them but unfortunately there is often little student support. If they can get on board, the Convo really could rock. Coach Deane Webb and the players are anxious to play in the Convo. It will be the first time for our coaching staff. Lets welcome them and our talented team with a large, enthusiastic crowd.

 Game 1 was a loss to Texas A&M who swept  both Ohio & Virginia Tech, but interestingly had to go 5 sets to beat the weakest team in the pool, VCU, who was swept by Ohio & VT. Against A&M, Ohio lost 3 close matches and seemed to be outplayed. Service errors were a problem that was overcome somewhat in the other 2 matches. But what really did Ohio in, IMO, was poor timing between setting and deliveries. This forced Ohio into fewer kill attempts and more lobbing, leading to free balls that enabled the Aggies strong front court more kill opportunities.

 Saturday’s matches were certainly more fun if you were an Ohio fan. The noon match sweep was led by Abby and Kelly. The evening match was against a solid VT team that resulted in the best match of the weekend, 4 tough sets, with Ohio winning 3 of them, including a win in set 2 after being down 18-12. VT fared better up the road in Columbus- on the gridiron.

Gilleland seems to be diversifying her game with more kills and digs to go along with her incredible setting skills. Meredith Ashy with her unreal ability to keep the ball in play. 
Frosh Jamie Kosiorek will become a serving machine for us down the road.
Mallory ‘hang-time’ Salis showing her multiple skills. 
Karin Bull with her quick hitters, & Shelby Walker & Ali Lake helping out nicely in the front court.
And it was good to see our starting MB Hannah Burkle back in action in the evening match after missing the other two with a minor injury.
Brooke Coleman with 16 digs. 
Kelly Lamberti with 20 kills, ho hum.  Nice effort ladies.

A note about the crowds: Attendance was:
Friday eve 3944!
Sat noon  1142
Sat eve 1452

The community was there as usual in force. The differences in crowd size had mostly to do with the students. Maybe 1500-2000 students on Friday, thanks to the food promo. They mostly stayed after intermission, a good sign.  A front and center vocal group, including Ozoners I believe, were loud and leading cheers (but please, not while we’re serving- do it while they’re serving). They were razzing the opponents which was done in a fun way at times, but like in hoops (although a minority of Ozoners), they can get nasty with their ‘suck’ stuff and can turn off other Ohio fans in the process, especially those with kids. 

For the noon match I counted all of a dozen students but a few hundred showed up that evening with a small ‘volleyball’ group of men leading cheers. Hopefully that’s a start to having a solid core of students rooting for what’s been Ohio’s best sports team for a decade.