Volleyball loses season finale to Ohio, narrowly misses out on MAC Tournament
Volleyball needed a win at Ohio and losses from Eastern Michigan and Buffalo Saturday to sneak into the Mid-American Conference Tournament as the eighth seed.
CMU was swept by Ohio 3-0, Eastern Michigan came from behind to beat Kent State 3-1, and Buffalo stunned Bowling Green in five sets.
Ohio had nothing to gain Saturday, since it had already clinched the top seed in the MAC tournament, but as head coach Erik Olson predicted, Ohio didn’t take it easy.
The Chippewas struggled to compete against the Bobcats in the first two sets, losing 25-15 and 25-14 after trailing the entirety of the first game and being behind the whole second set after being tied 2-2.
The third set was a different story, as CMU attempted to salvage the match and any postseason hopes. Trailing 9-6, the Chippewas went on a 5-0 run to take their largest lead of the match.
The lead changed hands seven times in the third set. Ohio took the lead for the final time at 19-18 and finished the match on a 9-1 run to win 25-19.
Junior Kaitlyn McIntyre totaled 13 kills, leading all players from both teams in the match.
Senior defensive specialist Jenna Coates was the most impressive of the seniors in their final match with a team high 15 digs.
Senior middle blocker Danielle Gotham had three kills, senior outside hitter Katie Schuette had two kills and only played two of the three sets, and senior setter Kelly Maxwell didn’t travel with the team to Ohio due to injury.
Junior Dani Thompson recorded 25 assists in her absence.
With four teams fighting for the final two spots in the MAC Tournament, Eastern Michigan and Kent State snatched the final two seeds while Buffalo and CMU ended up missing the tournament.
Eastern Michigan, Kent State and Buffalo all ended up with 6-10 records in MAC play, but EMU took the seventh seed by way of the head-to-head tiebreaker and Kent State made it by virtue of the third tiebreaker, beating top-seeded Ohio earlier in the season.
The Chippewas ended the season 11-17, with a 5-11 MAC record after losing their final six matches. A victory Thursday at home against EMU would have clinched them a spot in the tournament.
