Volleyball at Ohio University

Dropped the first game, dropped the third—but played brilliantly in the second, fourth and final games. We ran Notre Dame hard. We held their hitters to a .125 attack percentage in the match, we blocked well (twenty as opposed to their six), we had eighty-one digs!

Notre Dame had only lost one match of their last fifteen. From the stats, one could make it sound like we clobbered them. We didn’t. After all, we went into the fifth game tied two to two. But we roared out of the blocks in the final game, and sat them down in the go-home chair with a definitive 15-7.

Our band played: it sounded just like home in the tiny (1800-seat), well-lit gym with seats on three sides of the court. Photographers could stand in only three places, very restrictive. Still, we plenty to work with, and a good high perch above the court.

The fans made some noise. A certain Post parent made lots of noise! Just what I want to hear, personally. The celebration among parents and other OU fans after we clinched the last point was an adventure in delirium. I was sitting next to Lexie’s grandfather, who had made a twelve-hour drive to watch the team play–You go, Art! Everyone was jumping up and down and hugging everyone else, Pong was beaming, we were all part of the OU family. (This, after Cricket and I set down our cameras to cheer in the final set.)

Here are a couple of photos that define the match, one of Ellen, one of Meghan. Beneath them, click on the Read the rest of this entry link to see some others.

Celebrations follow blocks.

And lots of smart hitting. 19 kills for Ellen, 18 for Sue, 9 for Meghan.

Here’s a sequence I like. First photo, the pass is coming up to Michelle:

Meghan goes up for a short ball in the middle:

Notre Damn knocks it back, it looks like trouble:

But Meryl is right where she needs to be and pops the ball back up:

Here’s Meryl on another save. Doesn’t look she could get the ball back:

But she did, and Michelle put it over the net.

And Ellen with a diving save. She actually lifted this one just over the net, and it dropped in for a point. Wild cheering after this one.

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