Ohio State women’s volleyball comes up short against rival Michigan in 4 sets

Chris Slack
Mon, 17 Nov 2014 01:27:28 +0000
Sports, Volleyball, Buckeyes, Elizabeth Campbell, Erin Sekinger, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State volleyball

OSU junior outside hitter Elizabeth Campbell spikes the ball in the direction of two Rutger players in a match against the Scarlet Knights Nov. 8 at St. John Arena. OSU won, 3-0.
Credit: Molly Tavoletti / Lantern photographer

After a late push, the No. 17 Ohio State women volleyball team fell short against Michigan in four sets (22-25, 14-25, 25-21, 23-25).

After losing to No. 9 Illinois last week, junior outside hitter Elizabeth Campbell said the Buckeyes (18-10, 9-7) needed to be more aggressive to beat the Wolverines (12-14, 7-9).

While aggressiveness showed up at times, mistakes plagued the OSU offense throughout the match.

In front of a crowd of 1,700 in Ann Arbor, Mich., the Buckeyes had 28 attacking errors while the Wolverines had 20. Those errors led to a .190 attacking percentage for OSU as Michigan hit .234 in the match.

Down two sets to none, the Buckeyes won set three, and caused problems for the Wolverines in the fourth.

After being down 17-9, OSU went on a 14-7 run to get back into the set. However Michigan used one final push to score the match-winning point.

The Buckeyes and Wolverines each had three players tally double-digit kills.

Senior outside hitter Erin Sekinger followed up her career-high 27 kills by tying for the game high with 14 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Taylor Sandbothe and Campbell had with 13 and 12 kills, respectively.

Freshman defensive specialist Caroline Knop and freshman outside hitter Adeja Lambert led the Wolverines in kills with 14 each, followed by sophomore middle blocker Abby Cole with 10.

Buckeye senior setter Taylor Sherwin followed up her historic night of achieving a top-five mark in total assists at OSU with a double-double, consisting of 42 assists and 10 digs. Sophomore libero Valeria León followed up her career-high of 26 digs with 12, which tied Knop for the match high.

The Buckeyes are set to return to Columbus for their final three home games of the season. OSU is scheduled to play an improved Iowa (13-14, 5-11) team that lost nine of its first 10 Big Ten matches, on Wednesday and Big Ten conference leader No. 4 Wisconsin (24-2, 15-1) on Friday. Minnesota (16-11, 6-10) is scheduled to play the Buckeyes in their final home match on Nov. 26. All three matches are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at St. John Arena.