CMU volleyball splits weekend at McGuirk Arena
It was two completely different matches this weekend inside McGuirk Arena.
However, they started off similar for the Central Michigan volleyball team as it held on to beat Toledo in five games Saturday night.
After falling into an early 2-0 hole, the Chippewas fought back to win the match in come-from-behind fashion.
“It’s a very big win, we were extremely disappointed last night and then we went down 0-2 to top it off, even though I felt we played pretty good,” said head coach Erik Olson. “To fight back and keep going shows that this group doesn’t doubt itself.”
The Rockets won two close games to start off the night (27-25 and 25-23) and it looked like a repeat of Friday night’s match against Ball State as they swept the Chippewas in three games.
“We wanted more sprint scoring instead of playing point for point and we were doing a lot of point for point in the first two games,” Olson said. “Once we got going with that, we were good.”
After finishing off Toledo in game three (25-22) the Chippewas came out slow in game four, falling behind 7-0. But after that, they sprinted by the Rockets, outscoring them 25-10 the rest of the match.
“We talked about how we had to pick back up after trailing by seven early, we were positive,” said senior middle blocker Kaitlyn Schultz. “I feel like we kind of broke them after game four and went on a run after.”
CMU went on to win game five (15-9).
Schultz led the team Saturday night in kills with 16 and that total brings her just seven shy of 1,000.
“My family thinks about it (1,000),” Schultz said. “I looked up in the stands and my sister had a sign with a glittered seven.”
Schultz most likely will become the 14th member of the Chippewas 1,000-kill club next weekend when they are back on the road at Bowling Green and Miami (OH).
Friday night had a much different outcome then Saturday night’s finish.
The Chippewas lost to Ball State in three-straight games.
“We had to do the little things tonight,” Olson said. “We had to really want this one.”
That isn’t what happened.
“We didn’t do the little things like coach said,” said sophomore setter Kelly Maxwell. “We weren’t us tonight.”
The scores were 25-19, 25-20, 25-14.
The tone of the match was set in the second game after the Chippewas jumped out early. After that quick start, the Cardinals surged back to tie the game at 10, then took the lead and never looked back.
“The loss is absolutely on us,” Olson said. “There wasn’t a whole lot going on.”
