Volleyball Bounces Back With 4-Set Win

Friday, October 29

Mount Pleasant, MI

6 P.M.

Central Michigan University

10-14,4-8MAC

Akron

10-14,4-8MAC

Akron

Central Mich.

CMU players celebrate a point in Friday's victory over Akron at McGuirk Arena.

Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw

10/29/2021 9:39:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Veterans Grace Butler, Savannah Thompson reach career milestones

By: Katherine Schultz, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- After taking back-to-back losses last weekend at Miami (Ohio), the Central Michigan volleyball team returned home with determination.

The Chippewas fought for redemption and won, claiming a four-set victory over Akron on Friday in McGuirk Arena.

The victory propelled the Chippewas to 10-14 and 4-8 in the Mid-American Conference. Akron fell to 10-14, 4-8.

CMU is set to stay in McGuirk Arena and host Buffalo (11-13, 4-8) on Saturday (4 p.m.) in a MAC match. The Bulls won in four sets at Eastern Michigan on Friday.

"We can't do anything about last weekend or what's happened 10 weeks ago," CMU coach Mike Gawlik said. "We've got to re-establish one at a time … in order to go where we want to go, we know we've got to get hot, but that doesn't happen without winning one match first."

The Chippewas maintained full aggression against the Zips, finishing with a .312 hitting percentage to the Akron's .169.

CMU opened the doors with a set one win at 25-20; Akron took set two, 25-23, but a quick regroup enabled the Chippewas to push back harder and claim sets three and four, 25-17 and 25-23, respectively.

"We just really came out tonight looking for a dub (win)," senior setter Grace Butler said. "We played with some heart tonight and took some really big swings."

Butler contributed 24 assists, surpassing the 3,000 mark for her career. She now has 3,023 in her five seasons as a Chippewa and is one of four in program history with at least 3,000 assists. She is fourth on the program's all-time list.

"It's really cool," Butler said. "It means that I'm getting good passes and I have good passers surrounding me; I owe it to my teammates for making my sets look good."

Gawlik praised the offensive and defensive performance of his team, crediting several players who stepped up.

Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez also had a big night, contributing to seven of CMU's nine total blocks. She made 10 kills on 18 attempts, finishing with a .556 hitting percentage.

Savannah Thompson led CMU in kills with 14, while freshman Linnea Willer followed with 13. Thompson was honored prior to the match for surpassing 1,000 career kills. She has 1,044 in her career and is the ninth in program history to reach the 1,000-kill plateau.

She also has 1,293 career digs and is one of five players in program history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs, cementing her legacy as one of CMU's all-time great two-way players.

Aly Gurtiza returned to her role as libero, contributing 24 digs. Thompson added 21 and Sierra Gray finished with 20. CMU finished with 90 digs, its second-highest total this season.

With a quick turnaround to prepare for the match with Buffalo, Gawlik said that he is confident in his team's performance.

"We feel strongly that our better is better than other teams' better," he said. "If we play as well as we're capable of playing, we feel like we can be the aggressor and the team to beat."