Bueter’s Balanced Attack Crucial to CMU’s MAC Opener
If Jordan Bueter plays against every Mid-American Conference team the CMU volleyball team plays this year like she did the Thursday night against Eastern Michigan, the South Bend, Ind. freshman is going to have a monster career as a Chippewa.
An outside hitter, Bueter led the women to Thursday’s 3-1 victory over Eastern Michigan University. Tallying 14 kills, 13 digs on 32 total attacks Bueter made life difficult for Eagle defenders.
Playing in front of the home crowd for the first time since the Chippewa Invitational, Bueter said she was thrilled at the opportunity to make a difference in Thursday night’s match.
In the first set Bueter put CMU out to a 10-7 lead with her first kill.
This set up a string of kills shortly thereafter, two of the next three, as the Chippewas jumped out to a 21-13 lead.
On Bueter’s first serve attempt, CMU junior middle blocker Angie White had a kill on an assist from freshman setter Kylie Copple.
Bueter found her rhythm later in the second set than she did in the first.
With the score 18-13, Bueter slammed home a Copple assist and made the score 19-14 CMU.
Bueter’s first serve resulted in a kill by White. She followed this with her first ace of the match. This was followed by an attacking error made by arguably EMU’s top player Stacey Perinar, and quickly made the score 22-14.
In the third set, Bueter added back to back kills to the stat book with the Chippewas down 8-3. Later in the set, Bueter tied the game at 19 with a kill, but later committed two attack errors to give the game to Eastern Michigan.
Bueter saved her best for last in the final set. With CMU up 6-4 after a string of attack errors by the Eagles, Buter sent to ball over the net after a set by Copple to make the game 7-4.
Later with the score 20-17 in favor of the Chippewas, and needing only five points to win the match, Bueter took another Copple assist onto the Eastern side of the floor to make the score 21-17. She later added another kill to make the score 22-19. And after an intense match point in which the ball traveled over the net multiple times, Bueter capped off her night by adding her 14th kill and starting the Chippewas undefeated in MAC play.
Bueter was constantly a factor in the CMU offense as she had a mixture of powerful swings and small tips. It was only fitting that she would have the match’s final point to cap off a solid performance.
Bueter’s mindset before the match, and for the entire team, was simple.
“I think we started off with the fact that we are 0-0," she said. “Preseason is over. From here, we are ready to play right now.”
CMU will take on Ohio University in its next game, Saturday.
“I think I improved but the team as a whole improved," Bueter said. "That helped me to bring it up. Them pushing me helped me to improve the entire match."
