Junior outside hitter Erin Sekinger (12) gets ready for a serve during a match against Michigan Sept. 27 at St. John Arena. OSU won, 3-1. Credit: Mark Batke / Lantern photographer
The upcoming schedule for Ohio State women’s volleyball is anything but orthodox.
The matches are scheduled to start Wednesday as the No. 17 Buckeyes take on Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., kicking off a three game road trip.
Coach Geoff Carlston said he sees the “weird” schedule as a blessing. The Buckeyes play three games over the course of seven days, contrary to their norm of lacing up for just two contests over the weekend.
“It’s kind of nice actually that these last two weekends we played back-to-back against teams that had rest and days off,” he said.
After a 2-4 start to Big Ten play, a different schedule is not the only change Carlston wants to see.
“Really it’s about the offensive rhythm, finding a nice offensive rhythm and just getting up in our defensive energy, defensive attitude,” Carlston said.
Since starting the season on a 13 game winning streak, OSU has lost four of its last five matches, including being swept by Michigan State, Purdue and Minnesota.
Sophomore middle blocker Andrea Kacsits said she wants the team to bounce back and do more than just what gave it success at the start of the season.
“It would say so much about us as a team if we were able to overcome this and be able to come out of it even stronger than we were to start preseason,” Kacsits said.
Senior defensive specialist Julianne Mandolfo said part of returning to the team’s non-conference form will be eliminating mistakes.
“Right now, I think we just need to become more knowledgeable about the game,” she said. “We’re making aggressive mistakes but some mistakes we’re making are just, the bonehead, dumb mistakes.”
Mandolfo said since Big Ten play has started, the Buckeyes “just need wins.”
Junior outside hitter Erin Sekinger said if the team wants to win, it will have to put recent struggles behind them.
“(It’s important) not to hang our heads over the loss on the weekend,” she said. “We just need to make sure that we stay positive and look at this as a learning experience.”
The match against Northwestern is set to be televised on the Big Ten Network, while an Oct. 23 date with Penn State will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Carlston said he does not expect the televised play to effect his squad in any way.
The Buckeyes are scheduled to return to St. John Arena Oct. 25 as they host No. 8 Nebraska.
