CMU looks to turn corner after weekend sweeps
Now that’s more like it.
After struggling through the first part of the conference season, the CMU women’s volleyball team appears to have turned a corner after sweeping both Bowling Green and Miami this weekend at Finch Fieldhouse.
The Chippewas swept Bowling Green (25-12, 25-22, 25-21) Friday night before downing Miami in straight sets (25-23, 25-21, 25-18) on Saturday.
“Hopefully we turned a corner here,” said CMU head coach Erik Olson. “We’re going to continue to take it match-by-match. We’re not looking ahead, but we have high hopes for this team.”
Against Miami on Saturday, the opening set was a back and forth affair with the lead bouncing between both teams. With the set tied at 13, a Katie Schuette kill gave the Chippewas the lead. The home team then scored four more points to take a 18-13 lead before the RedHawks battled back, scoring three consecutive to trim the CMU lead to two.
With the score tied at 23, a Jocelyn VerVelde kill gave the home team the lead in the first set.
The second and third sets came a bit easier. In the second set, CMU fell behind early — trailing 9-12 — but scored five points in a row to take a 14-12 lead and never look back, taking the set 25-21 and 2-0 match lead.
In the third set, CMU looked like a team that was determined to finish the weekend perfectly, getting the points when it needed them most. With the score tied at 14, senior Lauren Krupsky gave the team the lead with one of her five kills in the set. The point energized the team as they went on to win the set 25-18 and claim their second sweep of the weekend.
“We had a good week of practice, everybody was focused,” said junior middle blocker Kaitlyn Schultz. “I think that helped us get this win.”
Krupsky had a match-high 15 kills while Schultz added 13 kills.
Defensive specialist Lisa Johnson had 10 digs.
Junior setter Catherine Ludwig had 35 assists and continued her strong defensive play with seven digs of her own.
Sweep No. 1
On Friday night, CMU dominated Bowling Green, In the first set, a Lindsey Delude kill gave the home team a commanding 21-9 lead in the first set. The team finished off the set 25-12.
In the second set, CMU trailed only once, 3-2, and pulled away in the middle portion of the set to take a 2-0 lead.
With the score tied at 17 in the third set, Krupsky’s power serving gave the Chippewas the spark they needed. Her back-to-back aces gave CMU the lead and they never looked back, winning the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.
“We played CMU volleyball and had good intensity the whole match,” Krupsky said.
Krupsky led the Chippewas with 10 kills while Schultz and Lindsey Delude each added nine.
The Chippewas look to keep the winning streak alive next week when they travel to Akron and Buffalo on Oct. 22 and 23, respectively.
