Volleyball swept in final home match, MAC tournament fate in question
In its final home match of the season, volleyball was swept by Eastern Michigan, 23-25, 13-25 and 19-25 on Thursday.
A win for the Chippewas would have meant a playoff berth in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, but will now have to win on the road on Saturday against Ohio if they want to clinch a spot in the postseason.
Missing from the starting lineup was senior setter Kelly Maxwell. This was the first match to not feature the team’s starting setter since it lost to Northern Illinois on Oct. 5.
“This was a tough situation for us to be in, not having two healthy setters,” said head coach Erik Olson. "With that considered, I would have wanted to see a better effort out of us from start to finish."
Starting in Maxwell’s place was junior Danielle Thompson. In Thompson’s first start in more than a month, she compiled 29 assists and 11 digs on the night.
"We miss Kelly (Maxwell) to death, and we want to get her to get healthy as soon as possible," Thompson said. "The team has total faith in me and I have total faith in the team."
The first set started with the Eagles grabbing the lead, and Maxwell’s absence was surely felt on the court. Despite this, CMU was quick to bounce back, mounting a streak of points late in the set, to tie the Eagles at 23. EMU, however, would go on to score the set’s next two points to win the set.
“We certainly sparked coming out of the locker room and we ran a good race in the second part of the set," Olson said.
CMU had 12 errors overall in the first set alone, but senior outside hitter Katie Schuette had six kills in the first set and had 11 kills and nine digs overall for the match.
"The season is not over yet," Schuette said. "Unfortunately it was the last home game for us, but I do have faith that we can take it to Ohio."
Junior outside hitter Kaitlyn McIntyre had 10 kills to go with 12 digs against the Eagles.
The second set started in similar fashion to the first, with Eastern Michigan jumping ahead of the Chippewas. This time, there was no comeback in the works for Central Michigan, as they dropped the second set 25-13.
In a much more contested third and final set, the Chippewas and the Eagles were neck and neck, trading tie scores and lead changes seemingly every few minutes. Each team showed its resiliency and never backed down throughout the set. Eventually, the Eagles came out on top with a score of 25-19.
Having spent a vast majority of the season on the bench behind Maxwell, Thompson’s rust was evident early on, but as the night continued, Thompson’s confidence level grew.
The Chippewas will be back on the court on at 7 p.m. Saturday to take on Ohio in Athens, Ohio. CMU must win in order to secure a place in the MAC Tournament.
