Chippewas Close Invitational With 2 Wins

CHICAGO -- The Central Michigan Volleyball team finished its weekend at the DePaul Invitational on Saturday with back-to-back victories, the first over Valparaiso, and the second over Holy Cross.

CMU, which fell in four sets to the host Blue Demons on Friday, is 7-2, matching the number of wins it posted last season.

The Chippewas dropped just one set in their two matches on Saturday.

Vs. Valparaiso
CMU beat Valparaiso in four sets 25-23, 25-23, 18-25 25-19.

Kalina Smith led CMU in kills with 15, Kendall Braate led in assists with 30, and Megan Kern led in digs with 26.

"I thought those first two sets against Valpo were very closely contested," CMU coach Mike Gawlik said. "We found a way to make a play in both of those sets to put them on the edge. There's not a big difference between winning and losing (a set) by two points. Sometimes it's just a play here or there.

"I don't know if we played a very clean match, as far as our quality of contact. It can be challenging to play at 10 a.m. It was a quick turnaround from the night before. But I do think we were gritty in those first two sets in finding a way to win two close ones. I think it was a really great win to bounce back from (the loss to DePaul)."

Vs. Holy Cross
CMU defeated Holy Cross, 25-20, 25-13, 25-19.

Smith led CMU in kills with 12 on a .333 hitting percentage. She also led in digs with 11, while Kern added 10. Sierra Gray posted 10 kills, while Grace Butler led the Chippewa setting with 19 assists.

The Chippewas finished with a .299 attack percentage against the Crusaders after posting a .110 attack percentage against Valpo.

"One of the things we wanted to do against a team like Holy Cross is to not (commit) too many errors," Gawlik said. "In set one and set two, we made two attacking errors on either side. We're a tough team to beat when we're not giving teams free points.

"Set three, we had a little more errors early on. It was a little bit more even. We were able to make a big push at the end with our service pressure, and got our block going. I thought our block got going in the final two games of the weekend. We had 19 blocks (on Saturday), in two matches. That's a fair amount with where we were at last weekend, and Friday night (against DePaul). Overall, I was pretty pleased."

All-Tournament Team
Smith and Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez were named to the all-tournament team. In Saturday's two matches, Smith had 27 kills and 30 digs, while Rosario-Martinez finished with 20 kills, seven digs.

Next
CMU travels to Youngstown, Ohio next weekend to compete in the Youngstown State Red & White Invitational. It is CMU's final tournament before it opens Mid-American Conference on Friday, Sept. 27, at Northern Illinois.

CMU will play a doubleheader on Friday, Sept. 20 against Eastern Illinois (11 a.m.) and Robert Morris (4 p.m.). The Chippewas are scheduled to play the host Penguins on Saturday, Sept. 21 (2 p.m.).

CMU beat Eastern Illinois in three sets at the Chippewa Invitational on Sept. 6.

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Team Stats

Kalina Smith

Sierra Gray

Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez

Megan Sivertsen

Players Mentioned

Kendall Braate

Grace Butler

Sierra Gray

Megan Kern

Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez

Kalina Smith

Players Mentioned

Kendall Braate

Grace Butler

Sierra Gray

Megan Kern

Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez

Kalina Smith