OSU sophomore middle blocker Taylor Sandbothe (10) and freshman outside hitter Luisa Schirmer (5) go for a block during a game against FGCU on Sept. 5 at St. John Arena. OSU won, 3-1.
Credit: Emily Yarcusko / For The Lantern
The Ohio State women’s volleyball team is set to hit the road to continue a series of 10 consecutive away games.
The Buckeyes are scheduled to travel to Oxford, Ohio, this weekend to compete in the Miami (Ohio) University Invitational.
OSU (6-3) is scheduled to play the University of Alabama-Birmingham (3-8) on Friday at 4 p.m., followed by a doubleheader on Saturday with Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (5-7) at 10 a.m. and tournament host Miami (Ohio) (5-4) at 7 p.m.
Once the Buckeyes finish the final non-conference tournament of the season, they’ll be set to start Big Ten play. However, the Buckeyes aren’t scheduled to play a Big Ten opponent at home until Oct. 8 against Illinois.
But senior outside hitter Erin Sekinger said she’s grown to like playing on the road throughout her career.
“We look at it as road warriors,” Sekinger said. “It’s a different atmosphere and you get the crowd chanting against you, which gives you more motivation to play better.”
Sophomore setter Maggie Heim added that playing more road games in front of “brutal” away crowds at the beginning of the year helps the team prepare for the season.
OSU coach Geoff Carlston said the women are getting more comfortable with their offensive and defensive performances, but they cannot make the small errors like they did last weekend in the Millennium Hotel Invitational. OSU finished the tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio, with two wins split by a loss to the Ohio Bobcats.
“We made some untimely errors against Ohio, but we made some really great, really big plays against (Syracuse and Xavier),” Carlston said. “You can’t give points away. Teams are too good to be missing serves. We have to be aggressive, so we’re going to miss some serves, but we’re not missing back-to-back serves and serves at the end of games.”
Once the Buckeyes conclude non-conference play, they are set to head to Minnesota and Wisconsin to open the Big Ten season. The Minnesota match is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 p.m., while the Wisconsin match is set for Sept. 28 at 2 p.m.
