The Ohio State women’s volleyball team huddles in the middle of the game against Purdue. The Buckeyes lost the match to the Boilermakers in three sets. Credit: Ohio State Athletics
After the Ohio State women’s volleyball team fell behind Virginia two sets to one, the message in the Buckeyes’ huddle was simple yet direct: “That is not us.”
Although Ohio State would drop a back-and-forth fifth set to lose at home 3-2 Friday in the Sports Imports Classic, the team staged a fiery comeback in the fourth set that it hopes will move forward to Big Ten play.
“We’re learning a lot about who we are and where we need to go with this group,” head coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg said.
The Buckeyes won the first set, but Virginia quickly rebounded, only making 13 attack errors the rest of the way. The Cavaliers were firing on all cylinders and took a lead they never gave back in the second and third sets.
Right-side hitter Becca Wight powered the Cavaliers’ offense with a team-high 13 kills on 20 total attacks. Five different players had eight kills or more.
Ohio State’s 31 attacking errors were 10 more than the Cavaliers’ 21.
Down 2-1, the talk in the Buckeye huddle before the fourth set established the tone for the Buckeyes. After trailing 6-0 to start the set, an Ohio State timeout changed the momentum.
Strikes from the front line put the Cavaliers’ defense into disarray multiple times during the set, with the Buckeyes taking seven of the last twelve points in their 25-23 set win.
Outside hitter Hannah Jones led the Buckeyes to a 25-23 victory in the fourth set, leading the team with 13 kills, along with a career-high four service aces.
She said guidance from the coaching staff helped her pinpoint her serves.
“My coach was giving me good spots that were open too, so I just took off of that,” she said.
The team as a whole compiled a .343 hit percentage in the fourth set, in contrast to their season-low -.182 hit percentage in the third.
Middle blocker Kaia Castle had 11 kills on a .471 hit percentage.
Both players credited setter Mia Tuman for allowing them to take advantage of Virginia’s defensive positioning that led to valuable points for the Buckeyes.
“Mia was doing a good job at getting us a lot of one-on-one, blocking and hitting stuff, so I was able to really show my range tonight,” said Castle.
Team leaders said they learned from the game and will use the experience to grow moving forward.
“We’re going to be fearless,” Jones said. “We’re all going to start from the jump, being aggressive and being the aggressors. We’re not going to let them play on our floor like that again.”
The Buckeyes will look to rebound on Sunday at home against Troy before heading into the Big Ten.
