The Ohio State women’s volleyball team will try to make a statement this weekend to the NCAA tournament committee when it travels to face Iowa and No. 6 Minnesota tonight and tomorrow.
“We have to win three of our next four matches, and I think we are a good candidate to make the NCAA,” said OSU women’s volleyball coach Jim Stone.
After battling a slew of injuries and starting the conference season 0-5, OSU has turned its season around and is now on the verge of making the NCAA tournament.
“We started out bad, but we kept working hard and didn’t let anything stop us,” said senior setter Katie Virtue. “We kept practicing and playing hard.”
The Buckeyes are now on a four-match win streak. The last win was an upset victory against then No. 13 Penn State.
“We are really excited about the win, but we don’t want to look back,” Virtue said.
Since beating now No. 17 Penn State, OSU is back in the national rankings at No. 25 after a five week hiatus and now has a roster of healthy players.
“We had people hurt in October that are now playing. Anna Andersson is back and making plays and Stephanie Higgins is at a point now where she is contributing,” Stone said.
In addition, OSU is in the midst of a three-way tie in the Big Ten with Michigan and Northwestern and has an outside chance of finishing second. But first, OSU has to get through Iowa City.
The Hawkeyes are 8-18 overall and 2-14 in the conference and have lost ten consecutive Big Ten matches.
“Iowa is a different type of team, they like to play slow. We are going to concentrate on playing our game and play at our tempo,” said senior outside hitter Shelley Draeger.
After battling with Iowa, OSU travels north to face a very good No. 6 Minnesota squad. The Golden Gophers are 28-3 overall and 15-1 in the Big Ten, with the lone loss coming against Illinois. Minnesota has already clinched at least a share of the 2002 Big Ten title and need only one more victory to claim the outright championship.
“Minnesota is a good team and will be a great challenge for us,” Virtue said.
Opposite of Iowa, Minnesota is riding a winning streak of ten Big Ten matches.
“They are a tall team, and they block a lot of balls. They play a higher offense, but we will have to try and out work them,” Draeger said.
Even with Minnesota being highly ranked, the match against the lesser Hawkeyes might prove to be the bigger game in terms of making the NCAA.
“Iowa is the more important game of the two. A loss to Minnesota would not hurt us too much, but a loss to Iowa would really hurt,” Stone said.
In preparation for this pivotal weekend the team has been working extremely hard in practice.
“We are trying to become a better backcourt defensive team and defend against hard-hit balls,” Stone said. “We want to not have so many self-imposed mistakes.”
But as the team goes on the road, it is focused on playing hard and letting the NCAA take care of itself.
“We want to build on last weekend,” Virtue said. “We know we can’t think about the NCAAs too much.”
