Volleyball Celebrates Four Seniors but Falls to Ohio

Saturday, November 11

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

5:00 PM

Central Michigan University

14-15,8-9MAC

Ohio

17-12,12-5MAC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Ohio	25	25	25	3
Central Mich.	18	19	15	0

Photo by: Jasper Warner '25 - @jasperwarnermedia

11/11/2023 8:12:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Julia Bice

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Central Michigan Volleyball fell to Ohio on Friday in straight sets, dropping its second game in as many days to the Bobcats. The loss along with other wins in the league throughout the night has mathematically counted Central Michigan out of the 2023 Mid-American Conference Tournament.

The match was CMU's Senior Night, in which the seniors on the roster were celebrated for their contributions to the program. While the Chippewas had their struggles offensively, coach Mike Gawlik noted that one senior specifically made her mark on the game.

"Elly Medendorp had a pretty good night offensively," Gawlik said. "Six kills in three sets, but we didn't have anybody with more than seven kills. They had four players with more than seven kills. We just never really got going offensively."

While CMU would have liked to pick up a win in the seniors' sendoff game, Gawlik made sure to give them a nice tribute after the game regardless of the result.

"You reflect on the time that the seniors have put in," he said. "Whether you win or lose it's still a celebration of what people have given to the program. In their blood, sweat and tears and those types of things. I guess one by one our seniors are all special in their own way. Each one of them kind of has a unique path to be here. Their careers look so different."

The Chippewas had four seniors honored tonight in outside hitter Devon Bright, middle blockers Austyn DeWeese and Medendorp, and defensive specialist Kayla Brandon.

Bright transferred in from Nicholls State ahead of the season, so while she only played one season in Maroon and Gold, she was a big piece of the puzzle throughout the season.

"The one thing that sticks out to me about Devon is she's a very mature person," Gawlik said. "Her smile and easy-going (demeanor) are infectious. She's fun to play with because there's nothing that really gets to her. She has played in a variety of roles for us in her one year. She was in our line up heavily for a while, and that has changed over time, but she is an incredibly dynamic server, and we are just so glad she chose to spend her last year with us at CMU."

While with the team longer than Bright, Brandon was another player who didn't spend her entire career with CMU but made a sizable impact when she was in Mount Pleasant.

"Kayla Brandon has been here two and a half years and came to us from a junior college program, Parkland that won the national championship," Gawlik said. "She is like Devon in some ways in that she's just really easy going, she's a really cool kid… her role also changed. She went from being kind of a reserve and then she earned some more permanent time and she's been a really good passer for us."

Gawlik then discussed the two middle blockers in DeWeese and Medendorp and what they've meant to the program.

"My heart's broken for Austyn in a lot of ways. I feel like her career looked very different than what we all thought it would in 2018-19 when we recruited her. She comes in in 2020, and really for her and Elly as this applies to both, they come in and they're going away to college and they really don't have a freshman experience. Their senior year in club really gets cut short because of Covid. So, they're playing in their senior year of high school and that all looks mucked up. They don't get a second semester of their senior year really. They don't get that experience. Then coming to college, that whole first semester is incredibly weird. It just was a really unique experience for the 2020s which is really Austyn and Elly.

"Austyn has really good feet blocking and she's one of our people who I think is always really attentive to the details. Although she got hurt in the one practice in six years I wasn't at because I was out recruiting. She dislocated her shoulder, which required surgery and turned into a 15 month recovery. The thing I will always remember about Austyn is that she had a choice to kind of give up. I think she knew it was going to be challenging to come back and challenge for the time she wanted. It would have been easier for Austyn to medically retire, and I think that she made a gutsy decision to fight to try to fight back and make sure her career ends on her terms."

Finally, Gawlik gave his remarks about Medendorp.

"Elly and I, I think have been through a lot in that she's been here all four years. She's been in the lineup and worked her way through. The thing I'm going to remember about Elly is that she's one of the hardest workers I've ever coached. That doesn't necessarily mean she's a perfect player but from day one, the improvement that Elly's had in our gym as both a competitor and as a volleyball player has been (tremendous)... if you could see the kind of player that she was four years ago, she has worked her way into a pretty major role in our program. There are not many people I would want to go to fight with instead of Elly. She's an intense player, a fighter, a workhorse and you know you're going to get 100% from her… she's worked for every bit of the opportunity she's earned here at Central Michigan."

For the game, CMU was led by Medendorp, junior outside hitter Lauren Schrock and junior opposite Linnea Willer with six kills apiece. Sophomore setter Claire Ammeraal led in assists with 21, and sophomore outside Maddy Gebhardt led in digs with nine.

The Chippewas close out their season on Wednesday (Nov. 15) when they host Eastern Michigan for a 6:00 p.m. ET matchup at McGuirk Arena.