Olson: Team has 'turned corner'
It’s the middle of the season and the volleyball team isn’t exactly where it wants to be.
The Chippewas (9-11, 3-5 Mid-American Conference) sit fifth in the MAC West Division, a game above last-place Toledo in the standings. Despite struggling in the beginning of the conference schedule, losing six of seven MAC matches, CMU believes it turned a corner over the weekend with sweeps against MAC East opponents Bowling Green and Miami.
“If we can get the ball rolling, good things can happen,” said head coach Erik Olson. “We feel we can still be a MAC championship contender with this group.”
Lengthy matches against league opponents have caused issues for the young Chippewas team. Five-set matches have not been kind to CMU, who is winless in the four matches that have gone to five sets. In matches that have gone to four sets, the team is 2-5.
Olson said many of the team’s opponents were playing with confidence against CMU, which forced several of the matches into five sets.
“Right now teams are in system more than they ever have been,” Olson said, “and we’re leaving the door open for teams when we should slam it shut on them.”
But after the pair of weekend wins, he said the tide has begun to turn in the second half of the season.
“We have been working hard and we have been training hard,” Olson said. “We just haven’t been rewarded in so many of the close matches.”
Aggressive serving
Sophomore Val DeWeerd, who finished the weekend with eight kills behind a .308 hitting percentage, said the last two victories should be a motivator for the team to get back on track after a 1-5 start to the conference schedule. A consistent offense and aggressive serving line will be keys in road games against Akron and Buffalo this weekend, DeWeerd said.
“These wins this past weekend definitely established what we already knew that we were a good team and if we can put all the pieces together, we can play awesome,” she said. “Last time we served quite a few out of bounds, so we definitely need to pick up our serving game.”
Senior Lauren Krupsky, who finished the weekend with 25 kills, agreed with DeWeerd and said that the focus moving forward needs to return to their serving attack that once led the league.
“We need to make sure we keep the serving intensity and the passion,” Krupsky said.
The Chippewas look to continue their winning streak at 7 p.m. Friday when they travel to Akron (13-7), who is tied with Ohio for first place in the MAC East at 5-3. The second test of the weekend will be at 7 p.m. Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y., when the team travels to play the University at Buffalo (14-10, 2-6 MAC).
