Frustrating…OSU’s Emily Avshalomov hustles to save a point in Sunday’s 0-3 loss to Minnesota at the Covelli Center. (Press Pros Feature photos by Sonny Fulks)
The Buckeyes volleyballers fell to 9-7 for the season, and 2-4 in conference play after a sweeping weekend at the hands of the Washington Huskies and the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Columbus, OH – Jen Flynn Oldenburg is the most positive of personalities you’ll ever meet. But the Buckeyes volleyball coach could not dispute the reality Sunday afternoon that her team, her staff, and perhaps her own psyche had just suffered what amounted to a lost weekend.
The Buckeyes lost for the second time in 72 hours in straight sets – to Minnesota (23-25, 20-25, and 22-25) – after being swept in similar fashion on Friday night by the University of Washington (11-25, 14-25, and 16-25).
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The common denominator? Both Washington and Minnesota towered over Ohio State in terms of height.
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Both were nationally-ranked opponents (Washington #20, Minnesota #21).
And the Buckeyes played at times as if they knew they were playing a bigger, better, and more-advantaged team. Not the prevailing attitude you expect, or want, out of a Big Ten volleyball program.
“Most of the teams in the conference are going to be bigger than we are,” said Flynn Oldenburg, afterwards. “So it’s frustrating to get swept at home, against teams that I feel we can compete with. And the Washington match was the tougher one, because I don’t that we DID compete. They came in and executed their game plan, they don’t make a lot of errors, they put service pressure on you, and we just backed off. I don’t know that we showed anything on Friday night.
“But the response today (Minnesota) is hopeful. Not that we won it, but we battled against a team that’s ranked, but so is everyone else in the Big Ten, or so it seems like. A lot of our next opponents have a higher RPI than we do, so what we have to do is build on what we saw tonight. There were glimpses of good. But we have to execute when we get past 20. We backed off too much and let Minnesota take those sets.”
Minnesota’s 6’3″ Kelly Kinney delivers a kill over a Buckeyes block attempt during the final set of Sunday’s Gopher win at the Covelli Center.
The Buckeyes did get out to an early, though slim, lead in the first set before Minnesota rallied to take the lead with an 8-6 run, negating a brilliant start by junior outside hitter Naomy Govou and four early kills. Govou played with great energy, was active at the net, and provided exactly the spark that the Buckeyes lacked against Washington…but she didn’t have enough help.
UM opened the door at 14-15 due to a service error, OSU took an 18-16 lead on a 5-1 run (their longest of the match), only to see Minnesota immediately wipe that out with one of their own. Tied at 20-20, the Gophers eased into the lead at that point and won, 25-23. The Buckeyes, to Oldenburg’s concern, were not competitive enough over the final five points.
The win put air in the sails of the Gophers in Set 2, wiping out an Ohio 12-11 lead, and used their size and precision hitting, along with three successful video challenges Minnesota coach Keegan Cook to take the second set, 25-20.
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The final set was more competitive, but Ohio could never get over the hump, or gain momentum with an offensive run more than 3-0. The game was back and forth until tied at 17-17…when Minnesota used a 6-3 run of their own to go up 23-20, used a late video challenge to negate an Ohio State challenge to tie at 23-23, and won match point on another video challenge on a net violation by Ohio State, 25-23 – Minnesota’s fifth challenge won in the match.
Frustrating, of course. But the obvious elephant in the room with both matches was the height disadvantage for Ohio State against both Washington and Minnesota, an obstacle, of course, without an immediate solution.
And a little bad luck…Naomy Govou’s kill attempt gets caught up in the net during the second set of Sunday’s loss to Minnesota.
“I don’t look at it that way,” said Oldenburg. “I think it’s more of what we can do if we get in space. Can we get in space? We have some undersized hitters in Kalli (Jioshvili-Rava) and Naomy (Govou), but they jump high enough, and they’re quick enough in space that they can slow people down. You saw that at times. And what I want to see is regardless of what the block is doing…can we dig balls around it? When we do it gives our offense a chance to score. And when we’re not that frustrates me because I think our defensive contacts can be a little bit better.”
To her point, losing in three sets is pretty stark. But a scan of the box score showed that the difference in critical stats like attack efficiency, serve, and serve-receive is within a 10% range, or less. The Buckeyes were that close to being competitive over those final five points in the set.
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“It’s 3-0 on the scoreboard,” Oldenburg concluded. “But what’s the real story? I think our side-out percentage was OK – not as good as they did – but after 20…what’s happening? We had our chances, they gave us points, and we gave those points right back to them. The details matter, and we did not address the details sufficiently. If we don’t address the details they’re going to repeat themselves, regardless of who we play.”
OSU’s Hannah Jones blocks during the final set of Sunday’s match with Minnesota at the Covelli Center.
As to the matter of the constant video challenges? They’re time-consuming, they destroy the flow of play, and with the limited camera angles are they accurate to over-rule the game officials to the extent that they did on Sunday?
“When they go in your favor you love it,” smiled Oldenburg. “I think you’re more frustrated when there’s five calls…and we know if we touched the ball or not…and the line judge misses it. Today I think they got them right, but it’s hit or miss for me.”
Naomy Govou led them with 12 kills on offense, Bailey Nakanelua had 31 assists, and Emily Avshalomov and Mia Stahler combined for 21 digs for the Buckeyes.
They drop to 9-7 for the season now, 2-4 in conference, and face more tough days ahead with USC (8-8, 2-4) and UCLA (13-4, 4-2) next weekend in California.
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