Volleyball team completes Cinderella story
GENEVA, Ohio – Cinderella most always spoils the ball.
Northern Illinois was the favorite, with its No. 1-seed in the Mid-American Conference tournament. Simply, they were supposed to be the life of the party.
Then No. 6-seeded Central Michigan arrived. CMU beat NIU in five sets to win its first-ever MAC championship here on Sunday.
“’This is ours,’ that’s all I heard,” said CMU head coach Erik Olson about the team’s talk on the bench. “They were on a mission.”
In five loud and fast-paced sets, Northern Illinois (27-6, 15-3 MAC) was sent home early from the party.
The Chippewas heads to its next ball — but none like it has ever been invited to before — their first-ever NCAA tournament on Dec. 2 and 3. The location is still to be determined.
The momentum CMU rode to its first championship had been built over the last two days with 3-0 wins against both No. 2 Ohio on Saturday and No. 3 Western Michigan on Friday.
“This is what aggressiveness will bring to you,” Olson said. “It was learned against Ohio, at Ohio.”
All-Tournament sophomore setter Kelly Maxwell said the team was not shaken before the decisive fifth set against NIU.
“Our whole team was just on fire,” Maxwell said. “We love game fives.”
One of the first things Olson did after handshakes and brief celebrations was study the stat sheets from all five sets. The work is not over, with games against Long Beach State and UC-Irvine on Nov. 25 and 26.
“’We have a big moment,’” Olson said to the team before the game. “I said, ‘Let’s go out there and take it to them. And they did.”
Melissa McIntyre, mother of freshman outside hitter Kaitlyn, said she left her home in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin this weekend to make the championship.
“I drove at five o’clock Saturday to get here,” she said while watching the team celebrate. “It’s an eight-and-a-half hour drive, but I had to get here.”
