Volleyball makes it look easy, with sweep over Toledo
Volleyball began Mid-American Conference play on Friday evening with a sweep against Toledo.
The Chippewas had firm control on the match for the first two sets, winning them 25-23 and 25-15 and the McGuirk Arena crowd saw CMU play some of its best ball all year.“I’m very pleased with this victory tonight,” said head coach, Erik Olson. “This is probably our best win of the season so far and this was very big of us to put it together.”
Through the first two sets, there was only one lead change, with the Chippewas seeming to have the match under control. The second set saw CMU’s attacking percent climb to .484. Toledo, however, did not go down without a fight.
“Toledo stepped up and I really thought they played great tonight,” Olson said. “Getting the first one (MAC win) out of the way is huge.”
The third set saw the score go right down to the wire, with exchanging set points and clutch plays from a number of Chippewas, CMU was able to prevail by a final tally of 30-28.
Senior setter, Kelly Maxwell, now ranked No. 13 in the nation in overall assists, had 43. Her teammate, junior Kaitlyn McIntyre, had an impressive performance of her own. With 12 kills, she was keeping CMU in good spirits.
Maxwell and McIntyre were not the only ones contributing for the Chippewas. Doing a quality job at spreading the ball around the court helped them prevail in the end.
Freshman outside hitter, Melissa Fuchs had 13 digs, while senior libero, Jenna Coates, had 16 digs of her own. Sophomore, Angie White, had 12 kills in the winning effort.
With so many people contributing, Olson looks back to this previous week’s practices.
“This is probably the best four days of practice we’ve had in a row in my 10 years here,” Olson said. “This team is just soaking it up out there; they were very productive this week.”
The Chippewas now looks forward to tomorrow night’s second MAC match of the season against Ball State, where momentum looks to be on the side of CMU.
"Ball State will be a big match,” Olson said.
