The Eastern Michigan’s women’s volleyball team continued its road trip as they headed to Indiana State University to participate in the Sycamore Holiday Inn Classic from Sept. 11-12.
As four awaits, the Eagles faced match ups with Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana State, Murray State, and University of Tennessee at Martin during the tournament.
The Eagles split games over the weekend, defeating IPFW and UT Martin, but losing to Indiana State and Murray State
“We knew we would have a tough weekend ahead of us, especially with four matches over Friday and Saturday,” stated head coach Kimi Olson. “We hoped to keep executing our game plan and playing clean volleyball, but the team was challenged differently this weekend.”
The tournament began with their first double-header matchup on Friday Sept. 11, as the Eagles faced IPFW and Indiana State in back to back games.
The Eagles defeated IPFW in a 3-1 win (25-22, 21-25, 25-18, 28-26) but fell short to Indiana State in a 3-1 loss (17-25, 20-25, 25-16, 20-25).
As the Sycamore Holiday Inn Classic continued the following day, the Eagles encountered another double-header, with matchups against Murray State and UT Martin.
Eastern fell short to Murray State in an upsetting 3-2 loss (16-25, 19-25, 28-26, 25-18, 13-15), but concluded the tournament with a win against UT Martin in 3-2 sets (25-16, 25-20, 23-25, 24-26, 15-10).
“The team faced its first weekend of competition after school has started. The athletes are no longer thinking only about volleyball, but splitting that time with academics and all the events of campus life.
“Besides other distractions, playing four matches in one weekend is double the playing time that a typical conference weekend involves,” said Olson. “We will need to continue to focus and work harder in practice to get into game mentality and see if we can extend those periods of time and improve our execution.”
Senior, Stacey Perinar ended the tournament with an overall total of 55 kills and 57digs. Devon Murray collected a total of 38 kills and Corynne Smith earned 86 total digs.
The Eagles now hold an overall season record of 7-3 with a season average of 13.0 in kills-per-set and 17.2 in digs-per-set.
“Overall I thought we battled in moments, but some mental focus caused us to lose some key points and put our backs against the wall in a few matches.
“However, we saw a new team enter the court in game three to fight back to even the match and force a fifth game,” added Olson. “The team does not want to lose and I like that we have already experienced that a number of times in the preseason.”
The Eagles will hit the road for its last tournament of the season in Dayton Ohio. Coverage begins Friday, Sept. 18 at 4p.m as Eastern faces Jacksonville in the Flyer Tournament.
Eastern Michigan volleyball begins its journey to the Mid-American Conference tournament on Sept. 25, when the team will travel to Kalamazoo to take on Western Michigan University in its first conference match-up of the season.
