Volleyball Falls In 5

Tuesday, March 16

Mount Pleasant, MI

6 P.M.

Central Michigan University

9-8,9-8MAC

Eastern Michigan

7-8,7-8MAC

Eastern Mich.

Central Mich.

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

3/16/2021 9:25:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Three days ago, the Central Michigan volleyball team rallied from two sets down to beat Toledo in five.

On Tuesday, the Chippewas saw the other heartbreaking and frustrating side of it.

Eastern Michigan rallied from two down on Tuesday to defeat the Chippewas in five sets at McGuirk Arena, 16-25, 17-25, 25-14, 25-22, 15-7.

CMU slipped to 9-8. The Eagles are 7-8.

"We didn't come here tonight to win two sets," CMU junior Savannah Thompson said. "We needed to finish it out and win three and we didn't push to do that. We need to make sure we're playing volleyball through all the sets and everyone's doing their job and contributing to what we need to do. We need to make sure that through the finish line we're playing together as a whole and everyone's pushing to win."

How It Happened
The Chippewas dominated the first two sets, finishing with a combined .341 hitting percentage and six aces. They hit .061 in the final three sets.

"In the first couple of sets I think (EMU was) trying to find some of our weak spots with some off-speed stuff and I think we did a good job of picking that up," CMU sophomore Anna Erickson said. "I don't think we were expecting them to come at us more aggressively and I think we got too comfortable. We need to expect teams like that to come out with some fire and be more ready."

The Chippewas made just four attack errors in the first two sets to Eastern's nine. CMU committed 22 attack errors in the final two sets while Eastern had just seven.

"There's your match right there," CMU coach Mike Gawlik said. "We've got to execute down the stretch, we've got have people step up and make plays. We shared the load early, and we share the burden late that we didn't meet the expectation.

"The message to our group is we've got to make sure we're sprinting through the finish line. And although I thought we were playing pretty good volleyball, we have to be more terminal. It's kind of like golf, you've got to play all 18 holes. Doesn't matter how much you're up halfway through, you've got to get to the 18^th hole, and you've got to finish your round. We were trying to kind of hold on and hope that the lead that we had was enough."

Key Stat
The Eagles recorded 12 blocks on the night, 10 of which came in the final three sets.

"Eastern did a really good job of turning up their blocking intensity," Gawlik said. "A lot of (our) same players that were sharing the load in the beginning were starting to look at each other to kind of make plays and we have to take it upon ourselves to be part of that answer. I thought we had too many hoping somebody else was going to close it out for us."

5-setters
It marked the first time this season that CMU has lost a 5-setter. The Chippewas were 4-0 in such matches before Tuesday.

"You've got to get through the finish line," Gawlik said. "Whether you're an old team or a young team, I think they're valuable lessons to have. We've played really well in set fives throughout the year. In some ways I thought our energy in set five right out of the gate wasn't quite where it needed to be. I thought we needed to kind of amp up the urgency, and I don't know if we were a little too comfortable saying, 'set five, we'll be OK.'"

Leaders
Thompson finished with 15 kills, Erickson had 12 and Sierra Gray added 10 for the Chippewas. Setters Grace Butler and Kamryn Olson combined for 50 assists. Kendall Braate and Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez each had four aces as the Chippewas finished with a season-high 10.

Next
The Chippewas go to Ball State for a pair of MAC matches this weekend. They open on Friday at 7 p.m. and then close the two-match series on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"You've got to recover; you've got to move on," Gawlik said. "It's a gut punch because it was right there for us. I think we played a half of a good match, but at the end of the day we've got to make sure that we close those matches out.

"We learned lessons that need to be carried forward. We've got to make sure that we finish matches off before we, I don't want to say celebrate because I don't think we did that, but I think maybe lose focus and feel like the game is already in hand."