Volleyball Moves to Five Straight Wins with Victory over Kent State

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Service pressure told the story of the match for Central Michigan Volleyball on Friday night when it collected its fifth straight victory in a win at Kent State.

"More importantly than five in a row, we got a win tonight, that is the goal." said 8th year Head Coach, Mike Gawlik, on the win over Kent State after his Chippewa squad won their fifth game in a row in Mid-American Conference play. "I think we played a really complete match, from start to finish. I think all phases of our game were really going well. We started it out with some really great service pressure, creating some out of system opportunities for them that led to scoring opportunities for us."

Junior opposite Linnea Willer led the charge with five service aces in just three sets, as the Chippewas swept the Golden Flashes. Her five aces were a career high for three sets (and just one short of her overall career record) - they were also two shy of the program record of seven.

Additionally, Willer helped propel the Chippewas to 12 service aces as a team, which marked a season-high for CMU in three sets.

The Chippewas certainly weren't one-dimensional in their scoring efforts, registering 45 kills on an impressive .367 hitting percentage. But it was the service pressure that allowed them to hold an advantage and dominate all night.

Leading that attacking charge was junior outside hitter Lauren Schrock who killed 13 balls and hit .522 on the evening. Schrock has found herself in a position to see significant court time for the Chippewas this season and has improved week after week as the season has progressed. "Lauren was incredibly terminal for us tonight. I think a large part of that is a team effort too. Lauren was able to get a lot of in-system sets tonight which allows us to get her into a rhythm. That does not happen without really good first-ball contact and really good defense."

Kent State never held a lead higher than two points at any point in the night. When all was said and done, CMU had wins of 25-12, 25-18, and 25-16. " There is a different kind of stress with that. We played great, but we also were never playing from behind."

It didn't take long for the Chippewas to establish momentum in set one. After finding themselves down 3-5 early on, they went on to score 15 of the next 17, giving them an 18-7 lead. Of the 12 service aces they had on the night, four came during the opening set.

Set two was the closest by score, during which CMU again found itself in a 3-5 disadvantage early. However, five kills from sophomore outside Maddy Gebhardt and another four service aces allowed the team to maintain the advantage.

In set three, the Chippewas came out of the gates hot, putting together three separate 4-0 runs during the first set - including during the first four and final four points. They finished off the pattern of four service aces in each set to slam the door on the Golden Flashes.

Along with Willer's record night from the service line, two other Chippewas - senior libero/DS Kayla Brandon and sophomore outside Natalia Rejment - also had multiple aces, with three and two respectively. Junior outside Lauren Schrock led the way with 13 kills on a blistering .522 hitting percentage, followed closely by Gebhardt with 11 of her own.

Sophomore setter Claire Ammeraal provided her usual team-leading assist mark with 37, while junior libero Aly Gurtiza finished with 15 digs to lead CMU.

The Chippewas will rematch with Kent State tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 4) at 4 p.m. ET to close out their final road trip of the regular season before finishing off with three home matches.

"For us, it is important to stay confident. I think confidence is knowing that if you play well, you are the team to beat. I feel that way, I have felt that way a lot lately. If we execute and we are playing well, I think we are really tough to play against."

Volleyball Moves to Five Straight Wins with Victory over Kent State

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Team Stats

Lauren Schrock

Maddy Gebhardt

Krystina Kasson

Elly Medendorp

Players Mentioned

Claire Ammeraal

Kayla Brandon

Maddy Gebhardt

Aly Gurtiza

Natalia Rejment

Lauren Schrock

Linnea Willer

Players Mentioned

Claire Ammeraal

Kayla Brandon

Maddy Gebhardt

Aly Gurtiza

Natalia Rejment

Lauren Schrock

Linnea Willer