Chippewas Bow In 3 At Toledo

Mitch Vosburg, CMUChippewas.com

TOLEDO, Ohio -- The Central Michigan volleyball team saw its losing streak grow to six on Friday with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-23 Mid-American Conference loss to Toledo at the Rockets' Savage Arena.

CMU is 3-12 overall, 0-3 MAC. Toledo is 7-7, 2-1.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Chippewas committed 24 attack errors to Toledo's 15 and finished with a .095 hitting percentage.

"There's moments for us I'm really proud of," coach Mike Gawlik said. "The inconsistency is something that we need to be far better at to have success in the conference."

Gawlik said the Chippewas came out flat to start the match, but began finding success when they played more aggressively.

"When we pushed and started being a little more aggressive we put Toledo on their heels a little bit," he said. "I feel like we're a really good team when we're aggressive. In set one I feel we were passive in how we were going about our business.

"I think we can put a lot of teams on their heels when we play aggressively."

The Chippewas gained several three-point leads in the opening set. Tied 16-16, the Rockets took control with a 9-2 run to take the set. CMU made four seven attack errors and four ball-handling errors in the set.

"I thought we got a lot of free points from Toledo," Gawlik said. "I was urging that we had to be in more control of the points we were putting up on the scoreboard. I felt like we needed to not only kill the ball, but block balls and really get that going so we're not reliant on the other team to give us so many free points."

Set two was a game of runs, with the last, 8-3, coming courtesy of the Rockets. The Chippewas hit a .081 and made 10 attack errors.

"I liked our response in the middle of set two to get back into that set, if not take the lead," Gawlik said. "I feel like the pushes we make as a team are very good, but we're not sustaining them long enough to get set victories and ultimately match victories."

Set three saw seven ties, but the Chippewas led just once, 1-0.

"In crunch time we're really looking for two, three players to really step up and take over the moment," Gawlik said. "I think right now we have a little bit of a youngness to our team that just hopes somebody else does it. Unfortunately you have too many people on your team that are hoping somebody else is the answer. When we're in those moments that's when we develop those kinds of leaders, develop those kind of players that can step up and answer the call.

"Sometimes it takes being in that moment and failing to have people step up the next time."

LEADERS
Sophomore outside hitter Kalina Smith led the Chippewas with 10 kills. Junior defensive specialist Megan Kern finished with a team-high 20 digs.

NEXT
The Chippewas go to Ball State at on Saturday (7 p.m.). The Cardinals defeated Eastern Michigan in straight sets on Friday at home, improving to 11-5, 2-1.

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Team Stats

Kalina Smith

Megan Sivertsen

Maddie Whitfield

Lyza Myers

Players Mentioned

Megan Kern

Kalina Smith

Players Mentioned

Megan Kern

Kalina Smith