Chippewas hit road to close season at Western Michigan, Northern Illinois
The volleyball team will wrap up its regular season schedule this weekend against a pair of familiar foes.
CMU travels to Kalamazoo on Friday and heads west to DeKalb, Ill., on Saturday to close the season against Northern Illinois.
After losing against Ball State on Friday, head coach Erik Olson said it will be important for the team to get back on track this weekend.
“We let off the gas a little bit at the end,” Olson said. “We have a good shot of doing what we need to do, but at some point we need to do it.”
Friday’s match will pit the Chippewas (13-13, 7-7 MAC) record against a Broncos squad that beat them 3-1 on Oct. 9 at Finch Fieldhouse. WMU comes into Friday’s match with eight wins in its last 10 matches.
Senior outside hitter Lauren Krupsky said the team faces a challenge in the Broncos defense.
“Western is definitely going to be a tough opponent,” Krupsky said. “They’re really good defensively, and they just try to get the other team to make mistakes.”
WMU (20-8, 10-4 Mid-American Conference) currently leads the MAC in digus with an average of 18.54 per game, with freshman Lena Oliver leading the team with 5.48 per game. The Broncos defense has limited its opponents to a .188 hitting percentage in 28 matches this year.
Following a solid week of practice by junior middle blocker Kaitlyn Schultz, who looks to build on her season-high 16 kills in Saturday’s loss against Ball State.
The key to the team’s victory will rely solely upon their focus and ability to finish the match.
“We just have to keep that same focus throughout the whole match,” Schultz said.
Playing spoiler
The Chippewas are also seeking payback this weekend against an NIU team that beat them 3-2 on Oct. 8 at Finch.
Krupsky said in their previous match against NIU (24-5, 10-4) they had strong play from outside hitters, something CMU mut be cognizant of if they hope to close the schedule out with a win.
“Northern Illinois has two tough outsides, so we have to do a good job of taking care of those attitudes and getting our middle’s,” Krupsky said.
Huskies outside hitters look to challenge CMU defensively behind the efforts of freshman Lauren Wicinski and Sarah Angelos. Wicinski leads the conference in kills per set with five and 0.42 aces per set. Angelos is seventh in the conference in hitting percentage (.325).
The match will prove to be crucial for NIU, which is in a three-way battle for the two at-large byes in the opening round of the conference tournament. They also are still in the running for a share of the West Division and overall MAC title crown.
CMU, meanwhile, hopes it can gain a little momentum of its own going into the postseason. The Chippewas are scheduled to host a MAC tournament first round match at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“We want to build momentum going into the tournament,” Krupsky said.
