J. Werling/THE POST Defensive specialist Carrie Childs passes a volleyball during the Bobcats' victory last night against the Kent Golden Flashes.

The Bobcat cheerleaders led the Ohio volleyball team in a pre-victory lap around the court before last night's game at The Convo - a precursor of the night's end. Ohio took the match against Kent in four games (15-7, 12-15, 15-12, 15-9).

A combination of the players running out of the tunnel, freshman Brittany Collins singing the national anthem and Ohio's loud cheering and excitement before the game put a different feeling in the air.

That is, until the start of the match.

Kent seemed to dominate the first half of the game, but Ohio quietly kept the game close. With the score tied at seven, the Bobcats took control and never looked back, scoring eight unanswered points for the win.

Game two told a different story. Kent remained on top of the score the entire game, handing Ohio a loss and evening the match.

The break provided fans with between-game entertainment such as music and competitions, but the players were more serious in the locker room.

"I think we were just a little flat during the second game," Ohio setter Carolyn Cowling said. "(The coaches) told us they didn't need to be playing us," she said.

The pep talk worked. Ohio started the third game ahead 6-1. Katie Mullen finished off the game with a huge kill, showing Kent what the Bobcats can do.

"We just picked up our intensity level. We just started to take care of the ball and play our game," Mullen said about the difference between games two and three.

With that, Ohio took game four and the match. Kent has now lost five straight matches, the first and last of which came at the hands of Ohio.

While the Bobcats gained a win, it wasn't their most impressive performance of the season, especially early in the match.

"We played a real flat match, used a lot of routine plays. That made our offense very predictable. That's what made it as close a match as it was," Ohio coach Ellen Dempsey said.

Ohio dominated Kent in every statistical category except for errors. Kent had 34 attack errors to Ohio's 29 and 13 service errors to Ohio's 11.

The Bobcats came just above Kent in hitting percentage, .200- .153, but the impressive statistics were in Ohio's defense. Ohio gained 83 defensive digs to Kent's 70 and 11 blocks to Kent's two. But the most important stat of all: three games to one for Ohio.