Photo by Phil Arndt
By Jordan Rinard, Senior Staff Writer
The Miami University volleyball team is rolling after posting sweeps this weekend with a 3-0 wins over Eastern Michigan University (25-22, 25-23, 28-26) and Central Michigan University (27-25, 25-17, 25-20).
The RedHawks (12-8, 5-3 Mid-American Conference) are now in second place in the MAC East and fifth place overall in the conference.
"It was a great weekend for us," sophomore outside hitter Maris Below said. "We played hard and had some good plays. It was good to show that we can sweep teams in their own house. Defensively, we had hustle plays and our block was awesome. We had different people in at different moments and everyone did their jobs and everyone was working hard."
Head coach Carolyn Condit also discussed the weekend.
"It was a positive experience for us, sweeping these teams on the road," Condit said. "I'm proud of the team for adjusting to two different styles of offense. Our offensive stablilizers played well, with [redshirt junior middle blocker] Jenny Ingle, [senior outside hitter] Sarah Chaney and [sophomore middle blocker] Paige Hill playing well and Chaney playing the smartest and best volleyball of her career. [Senior setter/outside hitter] Meg Riley set a great game this weekend, had a consistent block and was very timely in getting balls down for our team and [junior outside hitter] Annie Reiswig did a great job on offense, while getting blocks against slide attackers. Our backcourt's passing was as good as it's been in the past five years."
Against the Eagles (12-10, 3-5 MAC), Ingle led Miami with 11 kills with a .444 attack percentage. Hill and Chaney were not far from posting double-digit kills themselves, recording nine and eight respectively.
Reiswig and freshman outside hitter Olivia Rusek each tallied six kills in the match and Rusek put in work on the defensive side with a team-leading 14 digs. Maeve McDonald accounted for 12 digs.
Sophomore setter Krista Brakauskas recorded a double-double with 19 assists and 10 digs, while Riley barely missed out on one with 24 assists and eight digs.
While EMU outblocked the 'Hawks 10.0-8.5 for the match, the Eagles were outhit .161-.227 and committed 10 more attack errors.
Chaney and Ingle led all Miami scorers against the Chippewas (8-12, 3-5 MAC) with eight kills each. Riley registered a double-double with 16 assists and 13 digs to go with five kills. Five of Ingle's kills came in the second set, where the team hit .371 as a whole.
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The RedHawks outhit Central Michigan .207-.156 in the match as CMU committed 20 attack errors. The Chips hung around in the match thanks to their defense, which recorded 18 more digs than the 'Hawks.
"We're learning to hold off teams and to score when it counts and we need to improve our decision-making and our consistency," Condit said. "This gives us some momentum heading into Thursday against Toledo and we hope our fans come out and help support our run to the MAC Tournament."
The RedHawks return to Oxford this weekend as they host the University of Toledo 7 p.m. Thursday and Ball State University 7 p.m. Friday.
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