Just FYI...
Ohio's volleyball team beat Bowling Green (24-5) tonight in straight games (30-19, 30-26, 30-18). This marks the Bobcats' 44th consecutive home win and their 48th consecutive MAC win!
The #19-ranked Bobcats are MAC champions for the fourth year in a row and are 24-3 overall (16-0 MAC).
Congrats to the OU Volleyball team!
Ohio's four graduating seniors have compiled a 72-1 record in the MAC and a 102-11 overall. Ohio has been ranked in the top 25 for 22 consecutive weeks now (high of #14 in the final 2005 poll), a MAC record. They have never lost in the MAC tournament.
This season, the Bobcats have a game record of 75-17 and swept their opponents 17 times.
This is a true dynasty. And the team might be even better next year.
Will BG get an at-large bid to the NCAAs?
No. They haven't beaten anyone of note and have a very bad loss (Cleveland State).
Congrats Ohio. You guys have yourself a really good team. The NIU Volleyball team surprised me this year. NIU went 20-8 overall and 13-3 in MAC play. We lost to Ohio 3-1 in one game, lost a close one to Bowling Green 3-2, and lost to Western Michigan (which shouldn't have happened). But hey, we won the MAC West Title and had a 20-win season. A pretty good turn around for a team that went 16-17 overall and 7-9 in MAC play last season.
Yep, I liked what I saw from the Huskies when they came to The Convo. Good team, good coach. Your squad might be ready to seriously challenge us for the title next year.
it could be a very interesting "final four" in the MAC tournament in Toledo next weekend. the top four seeds (Ohio, NIU, BG, Miami) are good teams. anything can happen on a neutral court, but obviously Ohio has the edge over the other three. i loved our intensity last night against BG and if we play like that all three games in Toledo, we should roll. if we slip, any of those other three teams would love nothing more than sending us home.
at first glance, it might appear that BG would be a possible at-large bid for the NCAA, but i agree with OZoner about BG's non-conference schedule. i forget now where i saw it (maybe on the AVCA Web site) but they have an RPI for volleyball teams and BG was #60 in the most recent ranking, which was before this past weekend's games.
i loved the school record crowd we had last night too! 2,000-plus for a women's volleyball game! pretty impressive!
GO OHIO!
The alumni band announced they'll be at Toledo for the tournament. That'll be a nice boost for the girls.
And the top four seeds advancing to the semis seems like a pretty likely scenario; there was a noticeable separation between the top and the bottom of the conference.
Last night's attendance should put us in the top 20 nationally. And I haven't done the math yet, but Michaele Blackburn should be at about #17 on the NCAA all-time digs list.
If anyone is going to play the spoiler, I'll say Western. They're young and talented.
To give this some historical perspective:
- Ohio's 44-match home winning streak puts them 14th all-time.
- The 49-match regular season winning streak against conference opponents puts them 15th all-time.
- Ohio has been ranked a MAC-record 23 weeks.
- Michaele Blackburn is third all-time in the MAC and 18th all-time in career digs.