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'Hawks hit the road for pair in Michigan

Jordan Rinard, Staff Writer

The Miami University volleyball team faces serious road tests in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) this weekend against Central Michigan University (CMU) 7 p.m. Thursday and against Eastern Michigan University (EMU) 7 p.m. Saturday.

Miami (5-14, 0-6 MAC) is hoping to end a seven game losing streak and to capture its first road win of the year.

"This week we've been working on our first ball kills, serving with greater speed and practicing our defensive form," Head Coach Carolyn Condit said. "These skills will help get us quick points and get the opposing setters off balance."

Senior outside hitter and co-captain Lisa Treadway echoed Condit.

"We have been working hard, getting quality reps in practice and building our team chemistry," she said of the week in practice. "Overall, we just need to be more consistent. We've shown sparks, but we need to do things consistently."

The RedHawks start the weekend against the MAC West-leading Chippewas (11-6, 5-1 MAC), who have reeled off five straight wins, their most recent a 3-1 victory over the University of Toledo.

Sophomore outside hitter Kaitlyn McIntyre and defensive specialist Jenna Coates leads the Chips. They lead the team with 3.71 kills per set and 4.93 digs per set, respectively.

As a team, Central Michigan is in the top three in the MAC in kills, assists, service aces, hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage. CMU is also 3-2 at home this season.

The Red and White then travel to Ypsilanti, Mich. to face EMU (13-9, 3-3 MAC). The Eagles are two games back in the MAC West and are coming off back-to-back MAC road wins against Toledo and Ball State University.

Much of Eastern's success can be attributed to its two top players: senior outside hitter Rachel Iquaniello and freshman libero Sierra Reed. Iquaniello leads the team in kills, service aces and is second in digs. Reed is tops on the team in digs and returns.

Eastern Michigan has the most digs in the MAC with 1440 and is second with 16.74 digs per set. However, EMU is only 1-2 at home this year.

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Miami senior outside hitter Amy Kendall and junior libero Madison Hardy continue to dominate. Kendall is 10th in the MAC with .27 service aces per set, while Hardy is sixth in the conference with 4.45 digs per set.

However, Miami still sees room for improvement.

"We need to be better and more effective as a team this weekend," Condit said. "We need to get a set win at CMU and just keep it up."