White, McIntyre lead weekend block party
Volleyball went into Friday’s match against Buffalo ranked No. 234 in the nation in blocking, while Buffalo came in No. 11 and the best in the Mid-American Conference.
Watching CMU take down Buffalo 3-0, you wouldn’t have noticed the discrepancy. The Chippewas out-blocked the Bulls 11-6.
“I think their blocking is pretty good,” said head coach Erik Olson. “That was the biggest worry we had. (Blocking) is a skill that we’ve been working on all season long and I’m very happy with that blocking performance tonight.”
Leading the way for the Chippewas was sophomore middle blocker Angie White with seven blocks, matching her career-high which she set last weekend. Two of her seven blocks were solo.
Junior Kaitlyn McIntyre set her own career best in blocks with six, three of which were solo.
Olson said the team approached blocking in a different way Friday since it knew Buffalo has some of the best blocking numbers in the nation.
“We actually did attack the blocking a little bit, different players at different times,” Olson said. “We respected their block and knew that it was a risky game plan, but we sure saw Western Michigan do it very well last weekend.”
Olson has talked about the need for his team to be the aggressor for most of the season, and CMU responded with energy right out of the gates.
Junior middle blocker Hallie Enderle was third best on the team with two blocks and also had seven kills, being one of four Chippewas to total seven or more Friday.
CMU recorded nine team blocks Saturday against Akron with the versatile graduate student Katie Schuette leading with three solo blocks and an assist. McIntyre, along with senior middle blocker Danielle Gotham, had a solo block and two block assists. White also recorded two block assists.
