Central Michigan University Athletics
Eagles Fly Past Chippewas, 3-0
10/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
MOUNT PLEASANT -- The offensive engine never turned over for the Central Michigan volleyball team, as the Chippewas fell to in-state Mid-American Conference rival Eastern Michigan, 3-0, at Rose Center on Thursday.
CMU hit just .214 in the match and committed nine service errors while failing to record an ace in a match for the first time in 2009. The Chippewas passing struggled on the night, which lead to a tough night offensively. CMU managed just 49 kills and committed 19 errors in 140 swings.
"We had probably our poorest match of the year transitioning digs into offense," head coach Erik Olson said. "We got EMU out of system an awful lot tonight and just couldn't do anything with it."
The only Chippewa to get it going offensively was sophomore Kaitlyn Schultz, who had 11 kills in 20 swings and hit .400. The rest of the Maroon and Gold hit just .183.
Kaitlyn Hurt finished with a team-high 12 kills and Lauren Krupsky added 11. Senior libero Alexis Lonneman finished with a match-high 28 digs.
"Alexis was about as good as you can get," Olson said. "She passed extremely well, she was all over the place and she made plays that weren't even necessarily hers."
CMU hit .162 in the first two sets, but managed to push both into extra point situations. The Chippewas just couldn't manage to put a run together to close out the frame, and the Eagles took the first two sets, 27-25 and 28-26.
The third set saw CMU fall behind early, but the offense got it going to climb back into the frame at 13-12.
Later in the match, down 21-20, the Chippewas couldn't stop the Eagles run and Eastern Michigan claimed the frame, 25-22.
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for CMU (13-8, 6-5 MAC) and snaps a seven-game losing skid for EMU (4-23, 3-8 MAC).
"We need to make things happen and play our style of volleyball if we're going to be successfull against Kent State," Olson said.
The Chippewas return to action on Saturday, when Kent State visits Rose Center. The match will start at 7 p.m.
