Saturday, September 14
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
3:30 PM
Central Michigan University
7-2,0-0MAC
2
vs
3
Green Bay
3-6,0-0Horizon
1
2
3
4
5
F
Green Bay
22
25
25
21
15
3
Central Mich.
25
21
23
25
12
2
Photo by: Lauren Verellen '26 - @laurenverellen_photography
Volleyball Falls in Five Sets to Green Bay in Chippewa Invitational Finale
9/14/2024 8:18:00 PM | Volleyball
Senior Krystina Kasson explodes for career-high 21 kills, 45 on weekend
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Central Michigan volleyball fell in a five set thriller to Green Bay on Saturday, concluding the six-game, four-team tournament hosted in McGuirk Arena.
CMU went 1-2 on the weekend, having split a pair of matches with Southeastern Missouri and Eastern Kentucky on Friday.
The Chippewas, who are now 7-2, were valiant in set one (25-22). They dropped the next two sets, 21-25 and and 23-25, before forcing the fifth set, 25-21.
CMU fell in the finale, 12-15.
"I think our good is still really good," opened Head Coach Mike Gawlik. "We're doing a lot of nice things out there, we just have to keep our composure, we play preseason games so that we can figure out where we need to continue to get better, and Green Bay exposed a couple of things that we really need to get better at in practice this week."
Slow starts were a thorn in CMU's side, having trailed in the early points in sets one, two and five. The Chippewas maintained within one-to-two points through set three, and managed to lead through most of set four.
"I think we need to find more consistent play through an entire match," said Gawlik. "I just think that we are ebbing and flowing right now and we're getting off to a couple of slow starts.
"If we rectify those, our late kick that gets us back into these matches is good, but in set five there we went down 2-7, 2-8 and we are putting ourselves into a hole that we have to dig out of."
For CMU, Krystina Kasson had a lights out performance, finishing with a career-high 21 kills and .429 hitting percentage. On the weekend, she amassed 45 kills, bringing her season total-to-date to 99. The Kalamazoo native also tallied 3 blocks.
"Kass had a breakout weekend offensively," said Gawlik. "She carries a big load for us and she had some big swings in crunch moments."
Alongside Kasson at the top of the charts were Abby Olin, who went 13-24 (.417) and logged four blocks, and Grace Thomas, who went 9-15 (.467) along with a key solo block in set four.
Natalia Rejment went the distance defensively, tallying 24 digs on top of eight kills, while freshman libero Hannah Langton and sophomore setter Keelyn Muell had 14 digs each.
"It's a team game," said Gawlik. "When your middles and right sides are killing the ball it's because the setting is good and the contact is allowing them options. We're creating a lot of opportunity, I think we have to make sure that we get everybody on board."
"We're built so that we can't be just three hitters, we have to be six hitters. We tried to win with three today and we got close, but we have to spread the ball out to protect each other, we got a little one dimensional there in set five.When we share the load, I think we also share the pressure and responsibility that comes with coming up with big plays. Today, we put a lot of pressure in those two or three to have those big moments for us, but we have to find rhythm in a match if we start off slow, and it's not just in this match, but other matches— we have to hit the reset button."
CMU is back on the road next weekend in Pittsburgh, Pa. at the Duquense/Robert Morris Invitational at the UPMC Events Center. The Chippewas will play Canisius and Duquense on Friday, Sept. 20 and Robert Morris on Saturday.
"When you wind up on the short end of two set fives in a weekend, if that doesn't light a fire under your butt to get back into the gym and get to work…" said Gawlik. "We've got to get better at these things, and we're going to put time into it. It just felt like we were bare in some areas that I didn't feel like in the first couple of weekends.
"But, that's what you play for, that's why you play different types of teams from different leagues with different styles and different studs. Some studs are over on this side, some on that side, I felt we just got exposed a little bit today and that is something that we are going to use as motivation to get ready for next week."
CMU went 1-2 on the weekend, having split a pair of matches with Southeastern Missouri and Eastern Kentucky on Friday.
The Chippewas, who are now 7-2, were valiant in set one (25-22). They dropped the next two sets, 21-25 and and 23-25, before forcing the fifth set, 25-21.
CMU fell in the finale, 12-15.
"I think our good is still really good," opened Head Coach Mike Gawlik. "We're doing a lot of nice things out there, we just have to keep our composure, we play preseason games so that we can figure out where we need to continue to get better, and Green Bay exposed a couple of things that we really need to get better at in practice this week."
Slow starts were a thorn in CMU's side, having trailed in the early points in sets one, two and five. The Chippewas maintained within one-to-two points through set three, and managed to lead through most of set four.
"I think we need to find more consistent play through an entire match," said Gawlik. "I just think that we are ebbing and flowing right now and we're getting off to a couple of slow starts.
"If we rectify those, our late kick that gets us back into these matches is good, but in set five there we went down 2-7, 2-8 and we are putting ourselves into a hole that we have to dig out of."
For CMU, Krystina Kasson had a lights out performance, finishing with a career-high 21 kills and .429 hitting percentage. On the weekend, she amassed 45 kills, bringing her season total-to-date to 99. The Kalamazoo native also tallied 3 blocks.
"Kass had a breakout weekend offensively," said Gawlik. "She carries a big load for us and she had some big swings in crunch moments."
Alongside Kasson at the top of the charts were Abby Olin, who went 13-24 (.417) and logged four blocks, and Grace Thomas, who went 9-15 (.467) along with a key solo block in set four.
Natalia Rejment went the distance defensively, tallying 24 digs on top of eight kills, while freshman libero Hannah Langton and sophomore setter Keelyn Muell had 14 digs each.
"It's a team game," said Gawlik. "When your middles and right sides are killing the ball it's because the setting is good and the contact is allowing them options. We're creating a lot of opportunity, I think we have to make sure that we get everybody on board."
"We're built so that we can't be just three hitters, we have to be six hitters. We tried to win with three today and we got close, but we have to spread the ball out to protect each other, we got a little one dimensional there in set five.When we share the load, I think we also share the pressure and responsibility that comes with coming up with big plays. Today, we put a lot of pressure in those two or three to have those big moments for us, but we have to find rhythm in a match if we start off slow, and it's not just in this match, but other matches— we have to hit the reset button."
CMU is back on the road next weekend in Pittsburgh, Pa. at the Duquense/Robert Morris Invitational at the UPMC Events Center. The Chippewas will play Canisius and Duquense on Friday, Sept. 20 and Robert Morris on Saturday.
"When you wind up on the short end of two set fives in a weekend, if that doesn't light a fire under your butt to get back into the gym and get to work…" said Gawlik. "We've got to get better at these things, and we're going to put time into it. It just felt like we were bare in some areas that I didn't feel like in the first couple of weekends.
"But, that's what you play for, that's why you play different types of teams from different leagues with different styles and different studs. Some studs are over on this side, some on that side, I felt we just got exposed a little bit today and that is something that we are going to use as motivation to get ready for next week."
Team Stats
GB
CMU
Kills
63
63
Errors
26
22
Attempts
180
173
Hitting %
.206
.237
Points
75.0
74.0
Assists
62
57
Aces
5
5
Blocks
7
6
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
21
Aces
0
Blocks
3
Kills
9
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Kills
8
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Players Mentioned
OPP
/ Volleyball
DS/L
/ Volleyball
S
/ Volleyball
OH
/ VolleyballMB
/ Volleyball
Interview With Adam Jaksa and Arielle Wilson
Tuesday, August 26
BTS Volleyball Media Day
Thursday, August 07
Volleyball Passing Out Donuts
Thursday, April 10
Volleyball Sign Question
Tuesday, February 11