COLUMN: MAC West better division for volleyball
There's a clear difference between the East and West divisions in Mid-American Conference volleyball.
After 30 matches between MAC-East and West teams, the West holds a dominating 27-3 record over the other division.
The East only has two teams above .500 overall (Ohio and Bowling Green) and only one above .500 team in the MAC play (Ohio). The West has all but one team (Toledo) above .500 in both overall and conference.
Central Michigan head coach Erik Olson said in the preseason how the West looked stronger than the East and it appears he was right.
During the Chippewas five-game winning streak, they have played Toledo, Bowling Green, Miami University, Akron and Buffalo. Besides Toledo, all of those teams are in the East division.
Despite having to travel for five-straight weeks, the schedule looks to be working in CMU’s favor. It has been injury plagued early in the season and now that the team is healed, it is getting back into the swing of things against weaker East opponents.
Now that the team is hitting their stride, the Chippewas are confident and prepared to face the West again next weekend when they take on Western Michigan and Northern Illinois at home, then travel to Eastern Michigan.
Then they play the “strength” of the East, traveling to Ohio. A team that leads the division with a 7-3 MAC record.
After that game, CMU travels to Toledo, hoping to gain more confidence heading into Muncie, Ind, when it plays Ball state. The Cardinals embarrassed the Chippewas in their only McGuirk Arena loss this season.
The top eight teams in the MAC receive a ticket to Geneva, Ohio for the MAC Championship Tournament. If the season were to end today the West division could possibly have the top five seeds of the tournament and six of the eight overall.
