Volleyball at Ohio University

People liked the slow-motion sections of the previous video (about the seven starters), and here’s one that’s slows down the game even more. Yup, I’m still wrassling with Final Cut Pro. It’s a challenge, but fun.

The 2011 season: gone but not forgotten.

Here’s a video (perhaps not the final one, if I have the time to keep figuring out Final Cut Pro X, the complex video editing program I’ve been swimming in for a week) on the 2011 season, organized around the starters for the team this year—or at least the starters at the Akron match, where I videotaped the Introductions.
Check it out, there are some scintillating moments here:

Wish I’d been at the Cincinnati match to tape some of that glorious victory—but as I described in my previous post, I was attending another lovely match.

The best of holidays to all from MatchPointOhio, and now we wait for the next season. Except for the team of course. They’ll have plenty to do before next August rolls around.

As the Bobcats played their final match of the regular season on Friday afternoon, against Cincinnati, Cricket’s daughter was getting married in the dunes of the Outer Banks. (In the dunes, but next to an oceanside house, where family and friends had come for a week.) A beautiful wedding, a beautiful bride and groom.

I had presided over the wedding of Cricket and Claudia 28 years ago, and I presided over this wedding as well. What a treat. Yes, it’s a beautiful wheel, and we’re all on it.

Meanwhile, as vows, tears and kisses were exchanged in the dunes, the Bobcats were playing Cincinnati. The odds seemed to be against us. UC owned a 48-match home court winning streak that went back to 2007, the longest in the nation. Our RPI rating, as of last Monday morning, was 57. Theirs was 18. They were fresh off their victory as champions of the Big East conference. We were fresh off the disaster-in-the-Spire against Central Mighigan.

No matter! Coming back into the house after sunset, I ducked up to my room and found that we were up two games to one! Even more incredible, we were standing at match point, at 24-22.

Unfortunately, Cincinnati grabbed that set. The teams started a fifth, and I went down to the festivities. Ninety minutes later I checked back on GameTracker, and we had come back from 4-9 in the final set, had come back from 10-12, had come back from 12-13. Three resounding kills, from Bilger, Post and Lamberti, and we won! There was dancing in this big house, a great wedding match had been made—and off in Cincinnati, a match of a different kind had been settled. What joy all around—and Cricket and I subjected the wedding party to several whoops.

Not everyone cares as much about Bobcat volleyball as we do—can you imagine that?

Today, still swimming in the glory. What a great team we have. Will the NCAA let us into the dance? They’d be criminals not to!

Was I ever wrong. In my last post, after having watched Northern Illinois dismantle Ball State in the semi-finals, I thought they had a lock on the championship over Central Michigan. As I wrote, “Central will need to pull a huge rabbit out of the hat tomorrow to get a foot on Northern’s throat.”

But they have done just that. Northern’s Lauren Wicinski had 20 kills but hit only .158. Central’s freshman Kaitlyn McIntyre, seen here putting a ball through Katie Post’s hands, had 19 kills and hit .385.

Central took the first two sets. Northern fought back for the next two, but Central beat them 15-11 in the final set and took home the trophy.

I’m not sure how this plays out for OU’s slender chances at an NCAA bid. But emotionally, I was glad to see the team that beat us go on to win the championship. Any unguent to relieve the sting, perhaps.

Among the welter of stats from the two matches, these stand out for me: Against Northern, Central had 4 service aces and 10 service errors—and still won the match. Against us they had 12 aces (surely some kind of record) and 6 errors.

Anyway, I better ease up on my pontifications. It was kind of fun to write that Northern would be likely to have their sneaker on Central’s esophagus—but I was wrong, indeed.

Congratulations to Central Michigan: they earned their way to the top. And my sympathies (to some degree, as my default sympathies lie with the Bobcats, of course) to Northern. Cricket and I talked to their intense and engaging coach, Ray Gooden, on our way out of the Spire complex. He was having fun, enjoying the tournament and looking forward to the finals. Ah, to be the winner. But last year it was Ohio that undid Northern in a remarkable sweep, and this year it turned out to be Central—which had never won a MAC Championship before.

It’s a big wheel, and we’re all on it.

We’re so used to winning. We’ had won 23 of our last 24 matches at the MAC Championships, and we had a glorious match against Central Michigan two weeks ago. But this afternoon we slipped in a puddle and went down. No one can feel good about it We’ll all suffer through it.

We played poorly, I don’t want to get around that. But all weekend I’ve been complaining about the Spire’s industrial lighting—the worst of any gym I’ve seen in the last six years. I talked to the libero from the Northern Illinois team, and she said that every team had complained about it.

I hear that the Spire Institute gave the place to the MAC for free—but is it worth it, to play ball in a warehouse?

Sure, I’m in a funk and I’d like to blame something other than the team. That won’t get me far, but take a look at another photo. It’s actually been enhanced to add more light. Down on the floor the players were running around in the murk.

Okay, it wasn’t that bad. But dark, for sure.

In an attempt to add some lighting, above the court at one end the Spire had installed some lights behind banners. The result was that balls served from that end came in out of a white wall and were hard to see. The two sets we lost worst, 25-17 and 25-14 (ouch), we were receiving the ball as it emerged from a white concrete wall behind the server. Might have had some effect, it seems to me. Well, Central Michigan won from both sides, so the theory is suspect.

Yeah, looking for some excuse, and none will do.

Chelsea Bilger did hit .350 for the night. She had 10 kills and Kelly Lamberti had 11. Our Freshman hitters have had quite a year.

That’s it for the Spire and this year’s MAC Championships. Central will need to pull a huge rabbit out of the hat tomorrow to get a foot on Northern’s throat. Northern was impressive, I’d have to say awesome, in today’s defeat of Ball State, and I think it will likely be their sneaker on Eastern’s esophagus.

Further pontifications to come, when I’m feeling more human. And eventually, some videos.

More match photos here.

So here’s how it stands on Saturday morning in Geneva.

Ball State rolled over Eastern Michigan yesterday, and will play Northern Illinois today at 2:30. Northern essentially crushed Bowling Green yesterday, outhitting them .434 to .101. Ball State could give them a scrap, having beaten Northern in September, and lost to them later in the season. Northern is at the top of their game, with the already-legendary Lauren Wicinski averaging 5 1/2 kills per set.

We’ll be happy to take on whoever claws their way out of that match.

As for us, it’s Central Michigan at five PM. Central imposed their will over Western yesterday, holding WMU to a lowly .086 hitting average, while hitting .274 themselves. Kaitlyn Schultz is Central’s biggest hitter: she had 16 kills yesterday (same number as Chelsea Bilger, if you recall), and hit .367. Lindsey Dulude and Kaitlyn McIntyre also hit well for Central—but here’s Faith Robins and Lexie Hartnett taking care of Ms McIntyre two weeks ago.

Notable among yesterday’s delights was running into Sarah Patrulis and her mother. No photo—I was too busy talking—but of course we recalled the glory of Sarah’s MVP award at the MAC Championships two years ago. A libero as MVP: I wonder when that had happened last.

There’s a great crowd this year for the Championships. OU’s devoted Athletic Director is here, Jim Schaus. He always comes. The band is here, making us all feel right at home. Jim Post is here. How will we ever live without him and his clarion call, We love you, Bobcats! I had to run over and cheer for a while right next to him. If it were up to me, we’d all go crazy in the stands, and Jim Post can lead the way.

So here we are, juggling photos and video clips (something to come on that score, eventually), trying to figure out what to do about the dim light over at the Spire. They do have a beautiful floor, I have to say: it yields underfoot. The MAC Championship—it’s a killer.