Friday, March 12
Toledo, OH
7 P.M.
Central Michigan University
8-7,8-7MAC
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1
Toledo
3-9,3-9MAC
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2
3
4
F
Central Mich.
25
22
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Toledo
17
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Photo by: Keara Chaperon '22
Volleyball Rebounds With 4-Set Victory At Toledo
3/12/2021 10:29:00 PM | Volleyball
Chippewas post season-best hitting percentage
TOLEDO, Ohio – The Central Michigan volleyball team posted a season-best .279 hitting percentage on Friday in defeating Toledo in four sets in a Mid-American Conference match at the Rockets' Savage Arena.
The Chippewas (8-7) bounced back from their two losses last weekend against Bowling Green, winning 25-17, 22-25, 25-22, 25-16. The Rockets are 3-9. The teams are scheduled to close their two-match series on Saturday (3 p.m.).
Savannah Thompson finished with 17 kills to lead a balanced CMU attack. Anna Erickson and Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez added 12 apiece. Rosario-Martinez, who entered the match as the MAC''s most efficient hitter (.380), hit at .450; Erickson hit at .303.
Erickson had four of the Chippewas' season-high eight aces.
Sharing the Load
The Chippewas also got seven kills from Sierra Gray and six from Maddie Whitfield. That balanced attack, coach Mike Gawlik said, was the result of consistent first-ball contact and solid setting.
Chippewa setters Grace Butler and Kamryn Olson combined for 55 assists and just one error.
"When you have a lot of players hitting well, it means your distribution is quality and you're mixing it up … that usually filters down to pretty good setting," Gawlik said. "I felt like both Kam and Grace really did a good job."
Defense
The Chippewas finished with seven blocks while the Rockets, who hit at .203, had 10. Toledo came into the match as the MAC's top-blocking team.
"We did a pretty good job of keeping them off rhythm," Gawlik said, adding that the Chippewas managed to neutralize Toledo freshman outside hitter Taylor Alt, one of the league's top hitters who finished with 17 kills, but hit just .104. "Some of that is getting in good position to block. I thought we did a really good job of keeping a good player in our conference in check."
Aces
A point of emphasis last week, when the Chippewas dropped two matches to first-place Bowling Green, was serving. Gawlik said his team needed to be more aggressive, and it was against the Rockets.
"When you put a good ball in play enough times it yields some pretty good results," he said, adding that the tradeoff is often an increase in service errors. "It takes some broken eggs to make an omelet. We missed 11 (serves) and that's going to happen. Sometimes you strike out when you're trying to hit home runs, but I felt like our service pressure was really good and for the most the part, five or six people were bringing it and when you have five or six people bringing the pressure it doesn't give the passers on the other side time to settle in and find their rhythm. Tonight, we had pretty good, consistent pressure from six, seven people on our service line."
Game Plan
Gawlik said another point of emphasis coming out of last weekend is consistency in intensity, effort and execution. It's something that all coaches, regardless of sport, are constantly seeking.
The Chippewas, he said, found it on Friday.
"Overall, it was one of the more complete matches that we played all year, start to finish," he said. "Even in the set that we lost I thought we played pretty well, we just let a couple of key plays get away from us and instead of winning 25-22 you lose 25-22.
"I think where we've been over the last couple of matches is we've had this kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde (performance) at times. We want to prepare for a consistent match and sprint through the finish line, just constantly applying pressure to our opponent, even it doesn't always (result in) points. Applying that pressure forces them to have to play pretty good volleyball to beat us."
The Chippewas (8-7) bounced back from their two losses last weekend against Bowling Green, winning 25-17, 22-25, 25-22, 25-16. The Rockets are 3-9. The teams are scheduled to close their two-match series on Saturday (3 p.m.).
Savannah Thompson finished with 17 kills to lead a balanced CMU attack. Anna Erickson and Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez added 12 apiece. Rosario-Martinez, who entered the match as the MAC''s most efficient hitter (.380), hit at .450; Erickson hit at .303.
Erickson had four of the Chippewas' season-high eight aces.
Sharing the Load
The Chippewas also got seven kills from Sierra Gray and six from Maddie Whitfield. That balanced attack, coach Mike Gawlik said, was the result of consistent first-ball contact and solid setting.
Chippewa setters Grace Butler and Kamryn Olson combined for 55 assists and just one error.
"When you have a lot of players hitting well, it means your distribution is quality and you're mixing it up … that usually filters down to pretty good setting," Gawlik said. "I felt like both Kam and Grace really did a good job."
Defense
The Chippewas finished with seven blocks while the Rockets, who hit at .203, had 10. Toledo came into the match as the MAC's top-blocking team.
"We did a pretty good job of keeping them off rhythm," Gawlik said, adding that the Chippewas managed to neutralize Toledo freshman outside hitter Taylor Alt, one of the league's top hitters who finished with 17 kills, but hit just .104. "Some of that is getting in good position to block. I thought we did a really good job of keeping a good player in our conference in check."
Aces
A point of emphasis last week, when the Chippewas dropped two matches to first-place Bowling Green, was serving. Gawlik said his team needed to be more aggressive, and it was against the Rockets.
"When you put a good ball in play enough times it yields some pretty good results," he said, adding that the tradeoff is often an increase in service errors. "It takes some broken eggs to make an omelet. We missed 11 (serves) and that's going to happen. Sometimes you strike out when you're trying to hit home runs, but I felt like our service pressure was really good and for the most the part, five or six people were bringing it and when you have five or six people bringing the pressure it doesn't give the passers on the other side time to settle in and find their rhythm. Tonight, we had pretty good, consistent pressure from six, seven people on our service line."
Game Plan
Gawlik said another point of emphasis coming out of last weekend is consistency in intensity, effort and execution. It's something that all coaches, regardless of sport, are constantly seeking.
The Chippewas, he said, found it on Friday.
"Overall, it was one of the more complete matches that we played all year, start to finish," he said. "Even in the set that we lost I thought we played pretty well, we just let a couple of key plays get away from us and instead of winning 25-22 you lose 25-22.
"I think where we've been over the last couple of matches is we've had this kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde (performance) at times. We want to prepare for a consistent match and sprint through the finish line, just constantly applying pressure to our opponent, even it doesn't always (result in) points. Applying that pressure forces them to have to play pretty good volleyball to beat us."
Team Stats
CMU
UT
Kills
58
46
Errors
19
20
Attempts
140
128
Hitting %
.279
.203
Points
73
59
Assists
55
42
Aces
8
3
Blocks
7
10
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
17
Aces
1
Blocks
0
Kills
12
Aces
4
Blocks
0
Kills
12
Aces
2
Blocks
1
Kills
7
Aces
0
Blocks
2
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Setter
/ VolleyballOpposite/Outside Hitter
/ VolleyballOutside Hitter
/ Volleyball
Setter/Opposite
/ VolleyballMiddle Blocker
/ VolleyballOutside Hitter
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