A Win With a Meaning for Chippewa Volleyball

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Central Michigan volleyball closed out its weekend series on a high note on Saturday, beating Northern Illinois in four sets to earn a sweep of the Huskies.

In addition to the win, the Chippewas also celebrated accessibility and inclusion, as Saturday's game was the Autism Acceptance Game. Coach Mike Gawlik emphasized the importance of the cause after the game.

"To see our whole community and Central Michigan team come together to put together a really unique and one-of-a-kind event warms my heart," he said. "It's not just about making the game accessible to people with autism. It's about educating people about what autism is."

CMU came out of the gates firing with a 25-15 win in set one, followed by a 25-16 loss in set two. To close out the match, the Chippewas took the final two sets 26-24 and 25-18.

The win gave CMU its first consecutive wins since September. The Chippewas are looking to win the second half of their conference schedule - a stretch during which they return to McGuirk Arena for seven of their nine remaining games after having played seven of their previous nine on the road.

Friday and Saturday's wins provide CMU with a hot start to that second half of the conference schedule. A big part of this effort has been sophomore setter Claire Ammeraal, who had 89 assists between the two matches.

"It was really nice because we've been struggling a little bit this season and so we made some changes and it's good to see it pay off," Ammeraal said. "I think we played a lot more consistently than we normally do. I'm hoping we can continue this for the back half of our season because we still have quite a few games left."

That consistency Ammeraal mentioned was evidenced by the Chippewas' impressive hitting percentage of .314 over 140 attempts with 17 errors, resulting in 61 kills as a team. Twelve of those 61 kills came from junior outside Lauren Schrock off the bench.

"One thing (Coach Gawlik) mentioned is how we kind of give protection to our other hitters," Schrock said. "If they're struggling, we know we have two, three other hitters that are going to be producing. If someone is having bad day, we're able to work around that and spread out our offense, which really helps our success."

Schrock's 12 kills trailed only junior opposite Krystina Kasson, who led CMU with 15 kills - also giving her a team-leading 26 for the series. Ammeraal's assist total was also team leading, and her additional 11 digs and 8 kills saw her fall just two kills short of a triple-double. Junior libero Aly Gurtiza's 15 digs was the top mark for the Chippewas. Senior middle Elly Medendorp led the way with 4 blocks, while Ammeraal was the only Chippewa to register multiple aces with 2.

CMU spread the love statistically, with six players posting 8+ kills. Additionally, four players registered double-digit digs and five players had at least two assists.

While NIU gave the Chippewas some trouble in set two, every other set was handily in favor of CMU. This is especially true of sets one and four, both of which saw the Chippewas hit .440+.

Looking ahead, CMU is back at McGuirk next Friday, Oct. 27 for a "Volleyween" themed match against Bowling Green at 6 p.m. ET.

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Team Stats

Krystina Kasson

Lauren Schrock

Elly Medendorp

Linnea Willer

Players Mentioned

Claire Ammeraal

Aly Gurtiza

Krystina Kasson

Elly Medendorp

Lauren Schrock

Players Mentioned

Claire Ammeraal

Aly Gurtiza

Krystina Kasson

Elly Medendorp

Lauren Schrock