Volleyball falls short against Kent State at home
After sweeping Eastern Michigan Thursday, volleyball was swept by Kent State on Saturday
Even though the team was swept, it played one of its closest, most physical matches of the season. With final scores of 25-23, 27-25 and 25-21, CMU was within striking distance for most of the match, but was unable to come away with a victory.
"I think we gave them (Kent State) the first set of the match, and ultimately, we gave them 37 points tonight," head coach Erik Olson said. "If we could have just hit the ball in bounds, the match could have gone a different way."
Junior outside hitter Kaitlyn McIntyre led the charge for CMU in the losing effort. One week removed from joining the 1,000-kill club, she continued to put up impressive numbers. She had 18 kills and 10 digs with a .205 hitting percentage in the losing effort.
Junior middle blocker/outside hitter Hallie Enderle finished with nine kills and 10 digs.
Statistically speaking, the Chippewas played a solid match, but they couldn't pull together a cohesive match.
"We had more digs," Olson said. "I don't think we served all that stellar, but it really comes down to our hitting choices. I think our setter did a pretty good job, but we need to have some other positions doing their jobs too."
After handling EMU with relative ease just two nights prior, CMU saw drastically different competition.
"We passed a lot better on Thursday night," Olson said. "I think Eastern might be a tougher serving team, and I don't think we showed up to impose our will. Kent State had some confidence after beating Ohio."
The focus, as usual, is on practice after the loss. Olson hopes to rest up some of his players in preparation for their next test at Miami (Ohio).
"We're going to try to get healthy," Olson said. "We need to get better at being us because that's who beat us tonight, ourselves"
