With four games left in the regular season, the Eastern Michigan University women’s volleyball team competed in their last away game Oct. 27 in Kalamazoo against the Western Michigan University Broncos.
WMU took the match from the Eagles in three consecutive sets (19-25, 13-25 and 23-25). The loss brought the Eagles’ record to 15-13 overall and 5-7 in the Mid-American Conference.
Opening the game, both teams stayed fairly close. This changed when the Broncos took a six-point lead consisting of WMU kills and EMU attack errors. With this, the Eagles took a timeout hoping to regroup. The strategy seemed to work until later, when WMU dominated with a .375 kill percentage (18-3-40). Compared to EMU’s percentage of .205 (13-5-39).
During the second set, the Eagles never gained the lead. In the beginning of the set, WMU scored at least two points for every EMU point. WMU took off with 17 kills over the course of the set, while EMU only obtained nine out of their 34 attempts.
The first point of the third and final set went to the Eagles. EMU sophomore Megan Crawshaw killed the ball, which started a four-point run for the Eagles. They used this set to finally capture a lead over WMU.
However, the Broncos tied the game at 18-18 and stayed with EMU for the remainder of the game. With so few points left in order to win, both teams went back and forth with neither gaining more than a two point lead. WMU took control and won the set, resulting in a winning match.
EMU senior Rachel Iaquaniello led the team in kills with a total of 15 out of 57 attempted. Her teammate, senior Kristen Baker had the highest hitting percentage with .368 (10-3-19). Freshman Alyssa Davis led the team in both assists (18) and defensive digs (12).
The Eagles come home after a four-game road trip to compete against the Central Michigan University Chippewas Nov. 1 and the Kent State University Golden Flashes Nov. 3. Both games will start at 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
Following those two games, the Eagles will conclude their season with home games against Ball State University Nov. 9 and University of Toledo Nov. 10, which also start at 7 p.m.
