Joel Hawksley / For The Post / jh295407@ohiou.edu

Ohio middle blocker Jane Sytsma goes up for a smash over Eastern Michigan during the Bobcats’ 3-2 victory over the Eagles on Saturday night at The Convo.

Whitney Maiden’s confidence is growing with every swing of her arm.

The Nelsonville native was called upon Thursday night in the absence of junior outside hitter Ellen Herman, who has an ankle injury.

Maiden contributed 10 kills against Kent to lead the team and added 14 Saturday, a new career-high, to lead the Bobcats to a five-set win over Eastern Michigan.

She received the ball for 37 swings Saturday and is becoming a more-than-capable replacement for the Bobcats’ leader.

“(Maiden) had a slow first set, but from there on, she did a great job,” coach Ryan Theis said. “She did well against Kent, and hopefully she keeps rolling.”

Maiden credited the team around her for getting her the ball in the proper areas.

“My confidence is definitely there, but it has everything to do with the team,” Maiden said. “If the setters give me a good ball, it’s my job to put it down.”

In what has become a concerning trend at home, the Bobcats yet again started slow. The match opened with a service error into the net, and the Eagles took control of the first set early, holding off a late Ohio rally.

“Apparently, I need to change something about how we’re focusing on that,” Theis said with a smile.

The second frame was more tightly contested, with both teams trading kills and benefiting from an abundance of attack and serving errors.

After losing the third set, the Bobcats amped up their defense and junior middle blocker Jane Sytsma came alive. Sytsma registered 12 kills on the night, but her eight blocks changed the momentum of the match.

Senior Molly Mangan admirably stepped in and added 20 digs for the Bobcats, who also got double-digit digs from setter Michelle Jantsch (18) and junior Sarah Petrulis (16).

“For a while, we weren’t focused,” Sytsma said. “We just weren’t executing well. The big blocks and the big swings where we just go crazy really got us back into the game and slowed (Eastern) down.”

Ohio played a very patient match through three sets, and in the fourth frame, established the tone with stifling defense and well-timed kills by junior Meghan Simons, who contributed 12 kills.

The Bobcats dominated the fourth set, holding the Eagles to 12 points.

The fifth set started slow again for Ohio, but costly errors and lack of communication by the Eagles gave the Bobcats the chance to put it away for good. Sytsma had three blocks in the final set, and senior Amanda Andersen’s back-to-back kills put the Bobcats on top after trailing early in the frame.

“We knew we had an opportunity to block some balls (Saturday),” Theis said. “This is a completely different team than we played on Thursday (at Kent). Eastern is a slower team as far as their set goes, and we thought we could get some blocks and we did.”