Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
DePaul
Chippewas Close Invitational With Victory
9/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Central Michigan volleyball team split its final two matches of the Evansville Invitational on Saturday, falling 3-1 to Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis, then coming back to beat DePaul, 3-1.
The Chippewas opened the tournament with a victory, their first of the season, over host Evansville on Friday. CMU is 2-7 on the season.
CMU's Kaitlyn McIntyre and Kristen Reenders were named to the all-tournament team. Reenders shared the Best Defender Award with Beth Howard of Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis.
McIntyre finished the tournament with 40 kills and 32 digs, while Reenders had 64 digs. Both players had two aces.
CMU dropped its first two sets, 25-18 and 25-19, to IUPUI Saturday morning before claiming the third set, 25-20. The Jaguars won the fourth set, 25-23, to claim the match.
Freshman outside hitter Jordan Bueter led CMU with 14 kills against the Jaguars, while McIntyre, a senior outside hitter, added 12.
"It was us playing ourselves against IUPUI," CMU coach Erik Olson said. "It's tough playing morning matches and the team knows that. Physically, it's just a short turnaround. If we would have played the entire match the way we did in the third set, I think we would have seen a different outcome."
CMU had its best sideout percentage (68) of the match in the third set. The Chippewars finished at 51 percent in the first set and 58 percent in both the second and fourth sets.
"We shot ourselves in the foot," Olson said. "We have to come out with more focus as if every ball is the most important of the match. We're working on changing that mentality, and we did a better job of that in the second match (Saturday)."
The Chippewas claimed their second victory of the season with their win over DePaul on Saturday night. CMU won the first two sets, both by 25-21 scores. DePaul took the third set, 25-20, before the Chippewas took the match with a 25-17 win in the fourth.
"I like the way our team bounced back against DePaul," Olson said. "Both sides of the ball were very good. We were balanced in our attack and our defense was solid."
Three Chippewas recorded double digits in kills in the match. Bueter led the way with 17, McIntyre had 14, and junior middle blocker Angelique White added 10. That balance helped offset a 21-kill performance by DePaul's Saige Gallop. No other Blue Demon had more than seven kills.
"Our attack numbers really improved," Olson said in comparing the Chippewas matches against IUPUI and DePaul. "I think we woke up a little and started playing with more aggression. We started to get a better connection with our setters."
Freshman setter Kylie Copple recorded 45 assists against the Blue Demons.
"(Copple) did some really good things for us tonight," Olson said. "We have two setters (including Danielle Thompson) that are doing great things, and it's a nice benefit to have two players we can trust to put out there at any time."
CMU goes to the Cincinnati Invitational on Sept. 12-13. Charleston Southern, Tennessee State and Cincinnati comprise the rest of the field.
