Central Michigan University
Michigan State
Chippewas Look Ahead To Final Day Of Spartan Inv.
9/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Cullen Maksimowski, CMUChippewas.com
EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Central Michigan volleyball team came away empty handed Saturday, dropping straight sets to No. 7-ranked Florida and Michigan State in the first day of the Auto Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational at Jenison Field House.
CMU fell to the Gators, 25-10, 25-17 and 25-10, followed by a 25-14, 25-17 and 25-20 loss to the Spartans in their second match.
"Well I challenge any team out there to see if they played a tougher calendar day then we did today," CMU coach Mike Gawlik said. "We knew that coming in, and we knew that these are the kind of teams we're going to need play if we want to achieve our goals.
"I thought we were fearless today and I really thought we played hard today, we went after them and were engaged in the fight the entire time. I never questioned our effort, our fight and our determination today."
The Chippewas finished with a .024 hitting percentage against Florida and sided-out at just 36 percent. The Gators finished at .389 and 74 percent.
Junior outside hitters Jordan Bueter and Taylor Robertson led the offense with five kills each. Senior Kathia Sanchez had 13 assists from the setter position.
Carli Snyder had 14 kills to lead Florida's attack.
In the second match, CMU finished with a .100 hitting percentage. MSU was .315.
Bueter led the CMU attack against MSU with eight kills. Robertson and Sanchez each had five and sophomore setter Marissa Grant led the team with 10 assists.
Autumn Bailey led MSU with 12 kills.
Despite the lost to the Spartans, it was an important day for Gawlik, who is in his first year as CMU's head coach after 11 seasons as an MSU assistant.
"It's always exciting to come back to a place that was pretty special in your life," Gawlik said. "This is the place where I grew up as a coach, so to share one of my first coach experiences with a lot of people that were a part of my journey is obviously very special."
The Chippewas face Morgan State Sunday at 1 p.m. to close out the tournament.
