Ohio continued its Mid-American Conference dominance Saturday night, defeating the Buffalo Bulls in straight sets (25-16, 25-13, 25-12). The Bobcats were sharp throughout the match, keeping their conference record perfect due to alert defense and powerful offense.
After a back-and-forth beginning to the first set, the Bobcats pulled away to a comfortable lead of 14-9. Freshman Stephanie Olman would later record a kill to increase Ohio’s lead to 22-15. After two aces from Olman and a hitting by Buffalo’s Megan Lipski, the Bobcats won the first set.
Ohio rushed out to a 10-4 lead in the second set before Buffalo coach Blair Lipsitz was forced to call a timeout after a couple of aces from Ohio’s Jaime Kosiorek.
Following the timeout, several errors from Buffalo and four more aces from Kosiorek pushed the Bobcats’ lead to 20-4. After the home team exerted a forceful run and looked to threaten Ohio’s massive lead, the Bobcats regrouped and took the set thanks to a Buffalo service error.
Out of the intermission, Ohio showed no signs of letting up. Buffalo called a timeout after falling behind 12-5. Following the break, the teams traded points until a shared block from Karin Bull and Kosiorek gave Ohio a 15-7 advantage.
Buffalo requested another timeout after the Ohio lead grew to 19-10. Olman then subbed in for Abby Gilleland and contributed to three of the Bobcats’ final five points, as well as assisting Kat Bloch for the game-sealing point.
Service aces were one of the most important factors of the match. Ohio tallied 16, nine of which came from Kosiorek. Buffalo, however, recorded only seven.
Bull led the Bobcats in kills with 11. Gilleland accumulated 28 assists in the match.
Valisha Watkins led the Bulls with nine kills, and Tessa Ooyama had 14 digs.
The Bobcats improved to 16-3, 6-0 in the MAC while Buffalo fell to 3-15, 2-4 in MAC play.
