Volleyball needs win and help to get into the MAC Tournament
Volleyball has one more shot to get into the Mid-American Conference Tournament if it can beat the MAC regular-season champion Ohio Saturday and get some help.
After losing Thursday to Eastern Michigan, the only way the Chippewas can make it in to the tournament is by winning Saturday night, having EMU lose Saturday to Kent State and Buffalo lose to Bowling Green.
“Whether we’re playing for first place or 12th place, I want to see the best effort out of our team,” said head coach Erik Olson.
EMU holds the tiebreaker, but an Ohio victory would swing the tiebreaker in favor of CMU as long as there isn’t a three-way tie between Kent State, EMU and CMU.
That would occur if Kent State loses to EMU Saturday and Buffalo loses to Bowling Green. In that case, Kent State and EMU would take the final two seeds.
Ohio clinched the MAC regular season championship Thursday night with a win over Kent State. The Bobcats have won seven matches in a row and are 13-2 during MAC play.
“It’s senior night (for Ohio), as any good team, I would hope that their process is that they would go out there and be there very best,” Olson said.
The Bobcats won’t have much to play for Saturday night since they’ve already clinched the top seed.
“They have a great environment in regards to tradition,” Olson said. “It’s a fun environment, it’s a volleyball environment.”
Senior setter Kelly Maxwell will not be making the trip with the team due to injury. Maxwell sat out Thursday for the first time since she sat out Oct. 4-5 against WMU and NIU.
Junior setter Dani Thompson recorded 29 assists in the loss Thursday.
“If I go in confident, my team’s going to go in confident,” Thompson said. “I have faith in all of my team.”
Ohio resides just outside the top 25 in the AVCA Coaches Poll and were as high as 18th earlier in the season. The Bobcats are 2-2 against ranked teams this season, including victories against Oregon and Western Kentucky and 3-2 losses to North Carolina and Michigan.
The Chippewas haven't won at Ohio in Olson’s 10 years as head coach. The last time CMU has beaten Ohio on the road was Oct. 2 1999 during a 6-23 season under former head coach Elaine Piha.
