Volleyball hopes to turn luck around against BGSU, Miami
The women’s volleyball team looks to stop the bleeding when it wraps up a four-game homestand this weekend at Finch Fieldhouse.
CMU (7-11, 1-5 Mid-American Conference) will host Bowling Green at 7 p.m. today and wrap up the weekend at 7 p.m. Saturday against Miami.
The first half of the 2010 season has been a disappointment for the team, which was picked to win the MAC West Division for the first time in school history over the summer. CMU currently sits tied for last place in the conference.
Despite the record and team’s standing, head coach Erik Olson remains optimistic heading into the weekend.
“Our focus has always been on the progress,” Olson said. “We need to continue to work hard and the results will take care of itself. We had a bunch of matches where the outcome was a loss, but I was still pretty happy with how we played.”
In order for CMU to turn its season around, it will have to start winning the tough matches. The Chippewas are 0-4 this season when a match goes five sets and has had trouble scoring points in crucial junctures of sets.
They have 10 conference matches remaining and with a pair of wins this weekend, they could get the momentum they need to make a run up to the MAC tournament, beginning Nov. 16 in Toledo.
“We don’t need to change anything,” said senior outside hitter Lauren Krupsky. “We just need to be ourselves and play good team volleyball.”
CMU comes of a less than stellar performance against rival Western Michigan and could use a couple home wins to jump start their conference season.
Bowling Green (6-14, 1-5 MAC) comes into the match on a four-game losing skid of its own, having lost five of six overall. The Falcons feature a young, but talented, freshman lineup of Danielle Tonyan, Paige Penrod and libero Ashley Dunn. Tonyan sits fifth in the conference in kills with 3.95 per set, while Penrod ranks third in kills with 4.23 per set.
Defensive specialist Ashley Dunn averages 4.15 digs per set.
Miami (7-12, 2-4 MAC) is fresh off an impressive 3-1 victory against MAC East contender Ohio. Senior Michele Metzler and junior Amy Raseman lead the RedHawks attack.
Raseman and Metzler have 184 and 162 kills, respectively.
“We’re going to take it match to match,” Olson said. “We want to put ourselves in the best possible position and hopefully host a first round match and, the way these teams are knocking each other off, who knows what can happen.”
