Volleyball Drops Cross-Divisional Match to Miami

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OXFORD, Ohio (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University volleyball team lost a five set match to cross-divisional foe Miami University, Thursday, Oct. 17. With the loss the Eagles fall to 11-11 overall on the season and 1-6 in the Mid-American conference, while the RedHawks improve to 10-9 overall and 2-5 in conference play.

Set one proved to be a hard fought battle between the MAC cross-divisional foes as the biggest lead of the set came when the Eagles led the RedHawks, 16-11 on a Jill Briner (Oak Park, Ill.-Oak Park and River Forest) kill from Paige Roback (Maumee, Ohio-Notre Dame Academy). The Green and White held a slight advantage over Miami until late in the set when a kill from Paige Hill knotted the score at 23-23.

Miami took its first lead of the contest on an Eastern attack error to lead the Eagles, 24-23. Back-to-back kills from Stacey Perinar (Channahon, Ill.-Minooka Community) and Erin Short (Orrville, Ohio-Orrville) gave EMU the slight 25-24 lead, sending the set into extra points. After tying the set four different times, Miami would pull out the win on back-to-back services aces, taking set one 31-29.

Set two played out much like set one as the RedHawks largest advantage came on an Eagle attack error, allowing Miami to take an early 9-4 lead. Eastern tied the set six different times, but was unable to gain any momentum, falling 25-22 to the powerful Miami offense.

MU pulled out a second set victory behind a .283 attack percentage compared to the Eagles .182 attack percentage.

Late in set three, the Green and White saw the largest lead of the night for either team when they went on a three point run taking a 21-13 lead over the RedHawks on a Katie Krasowski (Oak Lawn, Ill.-Marist) kill. Eastern maintained the lead through the remainder of the set, earning a 25-19 victory to stay alive on a Dori Harrison (Euclid, Ohio-Beaumont School) kill.

EMU's battle continued in set four as the Eagles took the first point of the set and never lost the lead. Miami tied the set at 1-1 and came within three of Eastern on a kill from Meg Riley, bringing the score to 15-12, Eagles.

The Green and White used a match-high .326 hitting percentage in set four to take the 25-16 win over the RedHawks, holding MU to its lowest attack percentage of the night.

The Eagles were unable to hold the momentum in set five as Miami earned a 2-1 lead and went up as many as five over Eastern. EMU came within two of the RedHawks when Megan Crawshaw (Mattawan, Mich. / Mattawan) got a kill off the hands of Briner. Eastern was unable to close the gap as they fell 15-10 in the five set battle.

Short led the offensive effort for the Green and White as she tallied 17 kills on the night with a .341 attack percentage and added 22 digs on defense. Briner carried a team-high .406 attack percentage and notched 14 points and 39 assists, while Crawshaw added 13 kills for EMU.

Corynne Smith (Norwalk, Ohio / St. Paul) carried the Eagles on the defensive side of the ball, getting under 38 of Miami's attack attempts, which was one less than the RedHawk's Madison Hardy.

Eastern will be back in action, Friday, Oct. 18, when it closes out its Ohio trip at Bowling Green State University. The match against the Falcons is set to start at 5 p.m.

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Team Stats

Erin Short

Jill Briner

Megan Crawshaw

Katie Krasowski

Eastern Michigan Athletics