CMU hitting percentage second in MAC
Offense is a crucial component to winning matches in volleyball.
It’s a less understood but nearly as important stat is that of a team’s hitting percentage. For the Central Michigan women’s volleyball team, its current .233 percentage has earned them the second overall ranking in the Mid-American Conference.
The percentage is taken by adding the total of kills a player has in a match, subtracting any errors and dividing it by the total number of attempts that a player has at a ball.
This is an important stat when it comes to measuring a team’s offensive efficiency, something sophomore Val DeWeerd said has improved because of some changes they have made on the offensive side of the net. “Our offense definitely has changed — we went from a normal outside middle to now were we have our middles who can play right side,” DeWeerd said. “So it has made our offense become more dynamic.”
Part of that high hitting percentage is due to DeWeerd’s .309 hitting percentage in the first 43 matches.
Junior Kaitlyn Schultz has also contributed a team high .310 effort and said the strength of the team’s offense is something that can help carry them through the tough league schedule.
Schultz said that in order to maintain the high percentage, the team only needs to work within its self and continue doing the positive things that have gotten them to this point. One of those things is staying in the system of their offense and getting good swings in.
“We just have to keep swinging,” Schultz said. “(Catherine Ludwig) is doing a good job getting us open for hits. So it’s all on us and the setter to get good attempts up and get good kills.”
The Chippewas will look to bring a strong offensive attack when they playing their home opener at 7 p.m. Saturday against Ohio University at Finch Fieldhouse.
Patience will be another key to keeping the team in the upper echelon of hitting teams, and according to Coach Erik Olson, that will be the goal for the remainder of the season.
“We want our hitters to be patient,” Olson said. “ And we want our middles to be able to score on a good set.”
Deweerd said that the team is ready to hold on to that ranking against the tough league opponents like Ohio and Western Michigan, but, she said the team can’t become distracted by rankings and needs to stay focused on the task at hand.
“We look at a team one week at a time and we don’t look to far ahead in the future,” DeWeerd said. “But, we have all the talent to be able to maintain that (ranking).”
