Central Michigan University Athletics
Saturday, November 12
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
4 p.m.
Central Michigan University
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vs
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Western Michigan
Photo by: Sydney Kline '26 - @sydney.kline.photography
Chippewas' Continue Season-Ending Surge With 5-Set Win Over Western
11/12/2022 11:06:00 PM | Volleyball
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – In their final regular-season match at McGuirk Arena, seniors Maddie Whitfield, Anna Erickson and Mallory Hernandez combined for 43 kills on Saturday as the Central Michigan volleyball team took down Mid-American Conference foe Western Michigan in five sets for the second straight night.
The Chippewas topped the Broncos, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 16-25, 15-12 on Saturday to complete the two-match weekend MAC sweep, improve to 18-10, 11-6 MAC, and clinch a berth in the MAC Tournament.
WMU is 16-13, 8-9.
The Chippewas remain tied for fourth place with Toledo in the league standings. The top six teams receive a bid to the league tournament. Northern Illinois is sixth at 10-7.
CMU has one game left on the regular-season docket, at Eastern Michigan (5-24, 4-13) on Wednesday, Nov. 16 (6 p.m.). CMU topped the Eagles in straight sets on Oct. 19 in McGuirk Arena.
"I respectfully look at our team a year ago that had nine seniors on it," CMU coach Mike Gawlik said. "You graduate that and there's a lot of unknowns coming into the next season. We went in picked fifth in the MAC West, but to kind of be off the radar of teams and be totally different than we were a year ago -- no disrespect to our previous team -- to have different people assuming new roles and leadership roles, people stepping up as a voice in our huddle that maybe took a backseat a year ago, is a really neat element to coaching college athletics and coaching in general.
"To see people develop into those roles is really neat, and we're really proud of where we're at."
The Chippewas wasted no time getting down to business in the first set on Saturday, leading 8-3 before dropping the next six points to slip into a 9-8 deficit. WMU momentarily led, 15-12, but then CMU responded with 13 of the final 16 points of the set for the win.
CMU and WMU locked the score six times early in the second set before the Broncos pulled away to a 19-15 lead. The Chippewas rallied to tie the match at 20, but fell in five of the next seven points as the Broncos evened the match at a set apiece.
Set three was smooth sailing for the Chippewas as they led, 8-1, and forced the Broncos' final timeout after extending the lead to 14-6. WMU would not come closer than three points the rest of the way.
CMU never led in the fourth set, though was within clear striking distance down 11-10 and then 14-11 before the Broncos crept away by taking five of six points for a 19-12 lead that eventually turned into a set victory to force the first-to-15 deciding fifth set.
The Chippewas managed to shake off the Broncos in a nip-and-tuck fifth set on a Hernandez kill that tied the set, 12-12, sparking a 4-0 run that gave CMU the set and the match.
"I think we kind of ebbed and flowed throughout the weekend," Gawlik said. "I think we had some great moments, some really good stretches of points, good sets and we had some lapses, but more importantly I liked our response to get out of it.
"The messaging going into this set five, similar to any set five, is that we've got to forget sets one through four at that point, the good and the bad, and be the aggressors from start to finish.
"We refocused our conversation to the talk we had in the locker room before the match, (about) playing with a passion and joy, playing for each other and playing to win, but also to put ourselves in a position to play with courage and bravery in some big moments."
Hernandez led CMU with 21 kills and six blocks. Whitfield finished with 13 kills, a team-high .345 hitting percentage; and Erickson had eight kills and 12 digs.
Elly Medendorp concluded the match with nine kills, while Gurtiza finished with 31 of the team's 100 total digs.
Freshman setter Claire Ammeraal fell two kills shy of her fourth triple-double. She had eight kills, a career-high 51 assists, 14 digs along with five blocks.
"I feel like I'm getting to a point in my career where I really just enjoy watching our team celebrate these wins because of what goes into those moments," Gawlik said. "As a coach, and I've been on the sidelines for 18 years in a ton of different roles, you have all of these years to kind of find 18 years of moments that I remember and it's all for student-athletes.
"To see them break through during those kinds of moments, it's just such a rewarding experience for a coach."
The Chippewas topped the Broncos, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 16-25, 15-12 on Saturday to complete the two-match weekend MAC sweep, improve to 18-10, 11-6 MAC, and clinch a berth in the MAC Tournament.
WMU is 16-13, 8-9.
The Chippewas remain tied for fourth place with Toledo in the league standings. The top six teams receive a bid to the league tournament. Northern Illinois is sixth at 10-7.
CMU has one game left on the regular-season docket, at Eastern Michigan (5-24, 4-13) on Wednesday, Nov. 16 (6 p.m.). CMU topped the Eagles in straight sets on Oct. 19 in McGuirk Arena.
"I respectfully look at our team a year ago that had nine seniors on it," CMU coach Mike Gawlik said. "You graduate that and there's a lot of unknowns coming into the next season. We went in picked fifth in the MAC West, but to kind of be off the radar of teams and be totally different than we were a year ago -- no disrespect to our previous team -- to have different people assuming new roles and leadership roles, people stepping up as a voice in our huddle that maybe took a backseat a year ago, is a really neat element to coaching college athletics and coaching in general.
"To see people develop into those roles is really neat, and we're really proud of where we're at."
The Chippewas wasted no time getting down to business in the first set on Saturday, leading 8-3 before dropping the next six points to slip into a 9-8 deficit. WMU momentarily led, 15-12, but then CMU responded with 13 of the final 16 points of the set for the win.
CMU and WMU locked the score six times early in the second set before the Broncos pulled away to a 19-15 lead. The Chippewas rallied to tie the match at 20, but fell in five of the next seven points as the Broncos evened the match at a set apiece.
Set three was smooth sailing for the Chippewas as they led, 8-1, and forced the Broncos' final timeout after extending the lead to 14-6. WMU would not come closer than three points the rest of the way.
CMU never led in the fourth set, though was within clear striking distance down 11-10 and then 14-11 before the Broncos crept away by taking five of six points for a 19-12 lead that eventually turned into a set victory to force the first-to-15 deciding fifth set.
The Chippewas managed to shake off the Broncos in a nip-and-tuck fifth set on a Hernandez kill that tied the set, 12-12, sparking a 4-0 run that gave CMU the set and the match.
"I think we kind of ebbed and flowed throughout the weekend," Gawlik said. "I think we had some great moments, some really good stretches of points, good sets and we had some lapses, but more importantly I liked our response to get out of it.
"The messaging going into this set five, similar to any set five, is that we've got to forget sets one through four at that point, the good and the bad, and be the aggressors from start to finish.
"We refocused our conversation to the talk we had in the locker room before the match, (about) playing with a passion and joy, playing for each other and playing to win, but also to put ourselves in a position to play with courage and bravery in some big moments."
Hernandez led CMU with 21 kills and six blocks. Whitfield finished with 13 kills, a team-high .345 hitting percentage; and Erickson had eight kills and 12 digs.
Elly Medendorp concluded the match with nine kills, while Gurtiza finished with 31 of the team's 100 total digs.
Freshman setter Claire Ammeraal fell two kills shy of her fourth triple-double. She had eight kills, a career-high 51 assists, 14 digs along with five blocks.
"I feel like I'm getting to a point in my career where I really just enjoy watching our team celebrate these wins because of what goes into those moments," Gawlik said. "As a coach, and I've been on the sidelines for 18 years in a ton of different roles, you have all of these years to kind of find 18 years of moments that I remember and it's all for student-athletes.
"To see them break through during those kinds of moments, it's just such a rewarding experience for a coach."
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