Ohio lost 5 key players, all starters, including All MAC players who started and played together for 4 years. Add to that 3 starters missing from action due to injury or illness for all or part 0f the tourney. And add to that starting the season against 3 good teams, one top 25 and one top 50, So you’re playing with half of your starters out with backup players that typically don’t practice with the first team. We have 5 frosh and 2 redshirts whose last game was in high school. Put all that together and well, you have all the makings of messy start to the season. Except for a couple of decent sets against WKU it was ugly. The expected digs from Ashy were not there because she graduated. The consistent setting from Abby- the MAC POY- not there. Passing was just bad. The front line blocking from grads Karin and ‘Sky and the injured Katie – not available. And arguably, our best player, Mal, is currently out. The only thing that actually looked better was serving, IMO.
So you lose all these players plus 3 starters temporarily out, add untested players and backups who have not even worked together regularly in practice. So it was destined to be ugly and it was. This will take time to resolve and I’m confident that will happen with the starters returning and the solid but inexperienced talent we have from our newbies. By the time we play home again at conference time, this will be a different team and a competitive one in the MAC I predict. It’s a matter of time- practice, effort, game conditions, and learning to play with each other.
Go OHIO
Last Edited: 8/28/2016 1:23:35 PM by stub