Volleyball ready for test with familiar opponent
Volleyball prepares for its next test on tonight, where it'll be taking on a familiar Mid-American Conference foe at Eastern Michigan.
With the familiarity of two guaranteed regular-season matches each year, these two teams know each other. This season, however, apart from knowing each other well, these teams have found themselves achieving similar results.
With four conference matches behind them, both the Chippewas and the Eagles find themselves at the bottom of the MAC West. Both have also played Western Michigan and Northern Illinois in losing efforts this season.
“I think we have a lot of similar things going on,” said head coach Erik Olson. “Their strength is serving and blocking and ours is defense.”
Through the first four MAC matches, CMU has shown signs of excellence as well as regression. This leads Olson to assess his roster carefully, looking for his team to pull together and get back to winning.
“We have yet to put a starting lineup out on the floor, together, all at once,” Olson said. “That’s disappointing but that’s just where our journey had led us and I’m excited to see us get that starting lineup out there.”
Consecutive losses to Ball State, WMU and NIU have left the Chippewas hungry to return to the win column. Doing so against an in-state opponent like the Eagles would go a long way for Olson’s team.
“Eastern has the same record as we do and they’re pretty tough in their home court,” Olson said. “We’re going to have to play pretty well and take it away.”
