After winning its first game in nearly two months, the Kent State volleyball team returned to familiar habits when it was swept by the Ohio Bobcats (25-21, 25-18, 25-23) in a home game Tuesday. KSU is 2-22 and has gone 1-9 in its last 10 games.
The Flashes welcomed OU into the MACC fresh off of an inspiring win that saw KSU take rival Akron to five sets and win for the first time since beating NJIT Sept. 6. In that game, the Flashes knocked Akron out of a potential Mid-American Conference tournament appearance and looked to do the same against an Ohio team with postseason aspirations.
Set one saw both teams trading points back and forth mostly on kills from KSU’s junior outside hitter Mackenzie McGuire and OU’s graduate student middle back Elizabeth Hoerlein. The Bobcats began to pull away around the 18th point going a 6-1 run that put OU up 23-19 in a 25-21 set win for the away team.
If set one was a trade of points between KSU and OU, set two saw the Bobcats grab the game with both hands. OU opened the set 7-3 before outscoring the Flashes on a 12-6 run for the Bobcats in a 25-18 second set win.
With the game’s first two sets being decided between four and six points, set three being the deciding set jolted the Flashes, who came down from 10-6 to tie the set at 11 apiece. The Bobcats and Flashes would trade two points at a time, but the Bobcats, who scored their 13th, 14th and 15th points consecutively, pulled away at the last minute and prevailed, even after the Flashes went on a 4-0 run late.
McGuire led the Flashes in kills against OU with 15. She leads the Flashes in kills this season with 219.
In the game against OU, graduate student outside hitter Breanna Burrell hit a milestone: she knocked down her 1,000th career kill in the third set.
The Flashes remain at last place in MAC and have a 1-13 conference record. All four of KSU’s remaining games are against MAC opponents.
The Flashes will head to Mount Pleasant, Mich., to take on the Central Michigan Chippewas Friday. It will be a two-game set that takes it into Saturday. CMU is 20-6 on the year (11-3 conference record), and won its last game against Eastern Michigan in four sets.
Kent State is looking for its second road win of the season over the weekend.
Gage Wellman is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected] or @GageWellmanKSTV on X.
