The Ohio State women’s volleyball team won two of three games while playing in the Rebel Invitational this weekend, defeating Southern Miss on Friday and Samford on Sunday, but falling to Ole Miss in the Buckeyes’ second game on Friday.
The Buckeyes defeated Southern Miss in five sets, losing two of the first three, but sweeping the last two for the overall win.
The momentum continued into the first set against Ole Miss, defeating the Rebels 29-27, but stopped after that as the Buckeyes fell in three of the remaining four sets. Ohio State left Oxford, MS with a sweep of Samford on Sept. 1.
Senior setter Olivia Dailey made 48 assists and seven digs while redshirt sophomore middle blocker Jordan Fry totaled seven kills and four blocks.
Freshman outside hitter Mia Grunze, freshman opposite hitter Vanja Bukilic and sophomore middle blocker Lauren Witte all hit double digits in kills against Southern Miss; a career high for Grunze and Bukilic.
Sophomore defensive specialist Hannah Gruensfelder and junior outside hitter Ana Beatriz Franklin dug 14 and 12 balls, respectively. Franklin also had seven kills and junior defensive specialist Camry Halm had eight digs and two service aces.
Bukilić, Grunze and Witte dominated the second match, sporting 38 of the 54 team kills.
The match came down to the wire in the fifth set, and the Buckeyes lost the set to Ole Miss.
They came back strong the next day, burning Samford out early with long rallies, forcing them into their best game. The Samford Bulldogs tied up the first set at 20-all but the Buckeyes finished strong with a 28-26 win.
The teams bounced back and forth throughout the second set, and the Bucks clenched the third set from the start.
Gruensfelder led the defense with 17 digs, followed by Halm with 15.
Next, Ohio State will head to Towson, Maryland on Sept. 7-8 to face Princeton, Missouri and Towson.
