Volleyball Wins Fourth Straight

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Central Michigan Volleyball closed out its weekend slate of games with a bang, beating Miami (OH) via sweep on Saturday and extending its winning streak to four matches.

Not only are the Chippewas riding a winning streak, but Saturday's victory follows a win on Friday, in which CMU won in five sets over Bowling Green. With a rather quick turnaround from such a hard-fought win less than 24 hours before, head coach Mike Gawlik was pleased with his team's effort to sweep the Redhawks.

"When you come off a match like last night - five sets and really takes a lot of emotional investment to try to win," Gawlik said. "We rallied back from set three a night ago. You're all in and it's an emotional game. Then you get short rest because we played at six then turned around and played at four. To kind of be like 'OK, it's morning, it's a new team. Flip the page, new scouting report. These can be challenging matches at times because you use so much energy."

CMU kept pressure on the RedHawks throughout the entire match, hitting .252 on the night, which included a mark of .381 in set three.

During set three, the Chippewas posted an 8-0, going from a 3-3 tie to an 11-3 lead. During the run, sophomore outside hitter Maddy Gebhardt registered all three of her service aces on the night - a mark which not just CMU but the entire match on either side.

"(Gebhardt) had a really nice service run there in set three to kind of just break it open," Gawlik said. "I think it allowed us to take a deep breath and be great. I thought that was a real pivotal point in the third set of kind of just tearing the match open and really kind of solidifying that we were in complete control."

Gebhardt placed a focus on the technical aspect of her service to allow the Chippewas to create service pressure and put her team in an advantageous spot, allowing them to spark their run.

"I mainly just focus on my hand contact with the ball, just trying to get them out of system a little bit so that we have a better setup and the team can be more successful that way," she said.

Sophomore setter Claire Ammeraal stressed the importance of making these conference matches count as MAC play nears its conclusion, especially with the Chippewas' improved play as of late.

"Like we said in the last one, every single game has the same amount of importance," Ammeraal said. "It doesn't matter what team we're playing; we're getting to that final stretch. Every single game matters and we need to get as many as we can. Especially getting it in a sweep, it's gonna be good momentum going into our next couple games."

Ammeraal led the team in assists with 29, while also posting a team-high mark in digs with 17. Junior opposite Linnea Willer led the team in kills with 10, while fellow junior opposite Krystina Kasson followed closely with nine. Medendorp and Willer each registered a team-leading three blocks.

CMU will play one final road series next, heading to Kent State to take on the Golden Flashes next weekend, starting with a Friday match (Nov. 3) at 6 p.m. ET, then ending with a Saturday contest the following day at 4 p.m. ET.

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Team Stats

Linnea Willer

Krystina Kasson

Elly Medendorp

Lauren Schrock

Players Mentioned

Claire Ammeraal

Maddy Gebhardt

Krystina Kasson

Linnea Willer

Players Mentioned

Claire Ammeraal

Maddy Gebhardt

Krystina Kasson

Linnea Willer