CMU Volleyball opens regular season with back-to-back wins
Central Michigan middle blocker Maddie Whitfield spikes the ball against Western Michigan Oct. 31 at McGuirk Arena.
The Central Michigan volleyball team opened the 2022 regular season with a 3-0 sweep against Eastern Washington (28-26, 25-20, 25-17), and a 3-2 comeback win against Memphis (18-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 15-10), at the Memphis Tiger Brawl on Friday to open the season 2-0.
“A phrase that I like to use in our gym is ‘we don’t need everything from somebody, but we need something from everybody,’” CMU head coach Mike Gawlik said. “I really thought that everybody that’s on our roster impacted the match today… To come back 0-2 in enemy territory, it really takes an entire program… We all have a role and we have to prepare to fill that all the time.”
Senior outside hitter Mallory Hernandez, a transfer from Georgia, made her presence known in her first regular season start as a Chippewa.
She led the team in kills on the day, with 33 kills while adding four blocks.
“(Hernandez) comes in and she plays like a grown woman,” Gawlik said. “...The fact that she is 22 years old and has played a lot and has really carried a big offensive load for us because of the experience that she is able to bring to the floor. Obviously her offensive productivity that she brings to the table is really good.
“She also opens up things for some of her teammates as she becomes a little bit more of a focal point of our offense, and I think other players have found some good opportunities to score themselves because of Mallory’s presence on the floor.”
Game 1
Aided by back-to-back kills from senior outside hitter Maddie Whitfield, the Chippewas took a 10-5 lead in the first set against Eastern Washington. However, the Eagles eventually rallied and tied it at 24. CMU was able to get some clutch kills and an ace from freshman outside hitter Natalia Rejment to secure the set, 28-26.
The second set also remained close with neither team establishing a comfortable lead. However, in the final points of the set, CMU pulled ahead and took the second comfortably, 25-20, following back-to-back kills from Hernandez.
The third set started close, but it didn’t last long as the Chippewas went on a run to take an eight point lead late. Eastern Washington went on a run of its own to make it tight, however CMU closed it out, 25-17, completing the sweep.
Game 2
After a nine hour break, CMU faced off against tournament host Memphis.
Memphis went on a massive 6-0 run to put them up 13-7 in the first set, forcing a CMU timeout. Gawlik rallied the troops, who went on a run of their own bringing the score to 16-14. But Memphis recovered and took the first set, 25-18.
CMU found themselves playing from behind again in the second set. Down 18-12, the Chippewas cut the lead to one after Hernandez and Rejment had two kills apiece in four-straight points. But, the comeback effort wasn’t enough as Memphis pulled away, taking a two-set lead, 25-22.
“I think the message more than anything is we’re playing to win,” Gawlik said. “I felt like in sets one and two, we just played safe, kind of like ‘please don’t make errors,’ and that wasn’t working for us, and so we changed our mindset to play to win, and we’ll see what happens. If we lose, we lose, but we’re playing to win from start to finish.”
The Chippewas started set three aggressively and built a 4-1 lead. The teams traded points but tied at 22, sophomore outside hitter Linnea Willer came up with a timely kill, propelling CMU to a 25-23 win in third.
CMU came out firing in the fourth and pulled ahead 6-1. Then Rejment came alive, notching eight kills in the set. CMU closed out the fourth on back-to-back kills from Rejment.
With the fifth set all tied up, CMU took control, using a 4-0 run to take a 13-9 lead. With a Hernandez kill and an attack error by Memphis, CMU was able to complete the comeback against the Tigers.
Whitfied ended the day with 16 kills and five blocks. While senior outside hitter Anna Erickson added 21 kills, 19 digs and five blocks.
In her Chippewa debut, Rejment finished the day with 18 kills, 14 digs and two aces. Junior setter Kamryn Olson tallied 60 assists and 22 digs in two games.
The Chippewas look to continue their success on Saturday, Aug. 27, at 4 p.m. against Nicholls.
