Volleyball Heads Into MAC Tournament on High Note

Wednesday, November 16

Ypsilanti, Mich.

6 p.m.

Central Michigan University

Eastern Michigan

Photo by: Sydney Kline '26 - @sydney.kline.photography

11/16/2022 10:50:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Chippewas sweep Eastern for 8th win in last 10 starts

By: Katherine Schultz, CMUChippewas.com

YPSILANTI, Mich. – For the first time since 2019, the Central Michigan volleyball team is headed for the Mid-American Conference Tournament.

The Chippewas concluded their regular season on Wednesday with a three-set sweep over Eastern Michigan at the Eagles' George Gervin GameAbove Center.

At 19-10, 12-6 MAC, CMU will enter the league tournament at Ball State seeded fourth and will take on Toledo in a quarterfinal game at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. EMU finished 5-25, 4-14.

The 12 conference wins is a program high under seventh-year coach Mike Gawlik.

"The message to the group beforehand was that we have to set the tone and be competing at our own standard regardless of what the scoreboard says," said Gawlik, whose team has won eight of its last 10 starts with five of those wins coming in straight sets.

"I really liked our composure and maturity to come in and do the things we need to do to put ourselves in a position to win 3-0. It's nice to only play three sets as we came off a long weekend where we played back-to-back five-setters, and then we're turning around to play on Sunday."

Natalia Rejment and Mallory Hernandez led the Chippewas with 12 kills each as they made quick work of the Eagles, winning 25-21, 25-21, 25-23.

Back-to-back opening kills from Maddie Whitfield set the tone in the opening set as the Chippewas jumped to a 6-2 lead, extended to 15-10, and then went on an 8-4 run when EMU had pulled within two, 16-14.

Hernandez opened the second set with three straight kills, which energized the Chippewas into a 14-5 lead. EMU snapped the funk with a 10-3 scoring stretch to draw within three, 18-15, but would not come closer than that the rest of the way.

Set three was tied seven times, the final at 21-21, and the Chippewas got a pair of kills from freshman outside hitter Maddie Gebhardt to seal the deal.

Elly Medendorp led the Chippewas with a .538 hitting percentage as she finished with eight kills. Whitfield also had eight kills on a .533 hitting percentage.

Freshman setter Claire Ammeraal finished with six kills and 41 assists while libero Aly Gurtiza posted 16 digs, breaking the CMU season record with 586.

"I think we're playing some good volleyball," Gawlik said. "We were 4-4 at one point in the year (in the MAC) so to finish with a 12-6 record, we did a really good job.

"I think we've been in a lot of matches and playing some pretty good volleyball, our goal all year long is to work your tail off for a year to try to be peaking specifically in the MAC Tournament.

"Now that we're in the tournament, we can get hot. We're like any other team, we can make a run and try to close this thing out. We're just going to take it one match at a time."