Volleyball heads to Toledo, Ball State this weekend


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Greg Cornwell | Staff Photographer The Chippewas ready for the serve Sept. 25 against Eastern Michigan at McGuirk Arena. The Chippewas defeated the Eagles, 3-1.

After a week of Mid-American Conference play in the books, Central Michigan University’s volleyball continues its season on the road.

The women started the MAC season with a win over Eastern Michigan University and a loss to Ohio University leaving their overall record at 6-8 and the conference record at 1-1.

After having its longest winning streak (five matches) snapped by Ohio last week, the women have spent the week preparing for a pair of struggling opponents.

“Toledo is very dangerous,” Olson said. “I don’t think that’s a 1-14 team at all. They’re very young and they have some big kids on their side of the net.”

The Chippewas take on Toledo University, which goes into the matchup with 1-14 overall and 0-2 in the MAC.

The Rockets have been swept in 11 of their 15 matches and are currently on a four match losing streak.

Alyssa Ehrhardt leads Toledo with 148 kills and is second on the squad in digs with 136.

Head Coach Erik Olson hopes his team will not overlook the Rockets dismal record.

Olson said has spent the week cautioning his squad about the Rockets potential.

“Toledo is very dangerous,” Olson said. “I don’t think that’s a 1-14 team at all. They’re very young and they have some big kids on their side of the net.

“They can put it together another night. They’re a capable team.”

Ball State comes into the match against CMU 7-8 overall and 1-1 in conference action so far.

Hayley Benson is BSU’s key player leading the team in kills with 149 and tied for first in blocks with 12.

Olson knows that pulling out a victory over BSU will be far from easy.

“Playing at Ball State no matter how tough they are is always an adventure,” he said. “Their winning percentage in that arena is just ridiculous. We’ve had some epic battles and some great wins in that arena in the last few years.”

CMU’s junior middle blocker Kalle Mulford said her team focused on making practice more relaxing, in an attempt to relieve stress following the loss to conference powerhouse OU.

“We’ve been trying to have a lot of fun in practice,” she said. “We know we’re working really hard, and we just decided we needed to have a little more fun in the gym. We’ve been celebrating and having a good time and just enjoying the process.”

Mulford was not shy about how confident she is in her team’s chances of winning both matches this weekend.

“We need to start off strong,” she said. “We don’t want to let any teams back in it. We know that we can step on these teams. We need to keep them down where they belong.”

 

 

 

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