Volleyball takes one of three in weekend tournament
After falling to some close losses last weekend in Oakland, volleyball had hopes to regroup in Pittsburgh for the Robert Morris/Duquesne Tournament.
Now, after another long weekend of competition, the team has two tournament appearances under its belt and is 2-4 after finishing up match play on Saturday evening.
The Chippewas tried to pick up the momentum and began to pull together Saturday for the final day of the Robert Morris/Duquesne Tournament. After a few missed opportunities in Oakland, head coach Erik Olson wanted to make the necessary changes, stressing the Chippewas need to take better care of balls at the net.
“Our kills were up,” Olson said. "If you look at our assists versus our kills, you can see that we’re getting some kills not just from our setter. That gives you an idea that we’re burying balls at the net,” Olson said. “We did that in each match, except for Xavier.”
The results they were looking for out of their last match were not favorable, as they were swept, 3-0 against Xavier (18-25, 18-25 and 14-25).
Senior middle blocker Danielle Gotham had eight kills with four assists, while senior Jenna Coates contributed 20 digs in the losing effort.
In the second match of the tournament, the team started off strong against Robert Morris, winning the first match 25-20, only to lose the following two by scores of 25-23 and 25-16.
“Our outsides were doing a great job at bailing us out of some trouble situations,” Olson said. “Offense came around a lot for us this weekend.
CMU came back with a vengeance, however, beating the Colonials 25-16 and then 15-9 in the final set. Senior setter Kelly Maxwell had 54 assists, while Coates had 28 digs and 16 assists. Sophomore middle blocker Angie White had 16 kills in the victory.
These results came after a slow start to this weekend’s action on Friday when the Chippewas dropped their match to Duquesne 3-1, despite coming close to another comeback.
“Duquesne was a match that I absolutely thought we were going five (sets) with and I felt like we were going to win,” Olson said. “What I saw (against) Robert Morris was great leadership on our team.”
The team will now look forward to another tournament next weekend. This time it will be in Hempstead, N.Y., for the Hofstra Tournament, where CMU will face South Carolina Upstate, Princeton University and Hofstra University.
