Eastern's Magical Run Ends with Championship Loss to Ohio

Coach Berrington Interview

GENEVA, Ohio (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University volleyball team saw its 2013 campaign come to a disappointing end Sunday, Nov. 24, when it fell in three sets to the Mid-American Conference regular season champion Ohio University. Eastern had won four-straight matches to earn a spot in the 2013 MAC Volleyball Tournament Championship for the first time since the 1990 season, but came up short, 15-25, 18-25 and 19-25, as the Bobcats took the tournament crown. With the loss, the Green and White finished 18-16 on the year, while Ohio improved to a 27-4 record and earned 2013 NCAA Volleyball Tournament berth.

Jill Briner (Oak Park, Ill.-Oak Park and River Forest (Northeastern)) and Erin Short (Orrville, Ohio-Orrville) were each named to the 2013 All-MAC Tournament Team for their efforts over the weekend. Short totaled 43 kills, good for 3.91 per frame while hitting .376 en route to the tournament honors, while Briner was solid setting up the EMU offense throughout the tournament. The junior setter posted 128 assists on the weekend, which was good for 11.64 per frame.

EMU's offensive attack was balanced throughout the match as four Eagles, Megan Crawshaw (Mattawan, Mich.-Mattawan), Katie Krasowski (Oak Lawn, Ill.-Marist), Paige Roback (Maumee, Ohio-Notre Dame Academy) and Short each posted six kills. Stacey Perinar (Channahon, Ill.-Minooka Community) added five of her own, while Briner contributed four kills and a team-high 27 assists. The Eagles had five service aces, including two from Perinar. As a team, EMU hit .198 after accumulating 33 kills on 111 attempts with 11 errors.

Defensively, Corynne Smith (Norwalk, Ohio-St. Paul) led the squad with 12 digs, while Perinar added 10. For the first time this season, Eastern did not record a block in a match.

For Ohio, Kelly Lamberti and Liis Kullerkann had 16 and 15 kills, respectively, while Katie Horton added eight and Alexis Pinson posted seven. The 2013 Setter and Player of the Year in the MAC, Abby Gilleland, posted 41 assists for Ohio, while also adding four kills. The Bobcats hit .370 with 54 kills on 119 attempts, with just 10 errors.

On the defensive side of the court, OU had three members post double-figures in digs, with libero Meredith Ashy leading the way. Ashy posted 19 digs, while at the net the Bobcats had three team blocks.

Eastern opened the match with a service ace from Roback, but Kullerkann return-fired with a kill to knot things up and the Green and White were never able to catch the Bobcats. OU posted a 15-25 set win to get on top by one frame. Krasowski led the EMU offense with a .600 attack percentage, while going 3-for-5 in her attempts. Eastern hit just .128 in the frame while the Bobcats posted a .333 attack percentage which included five kills from Kullerkann and four from both Lamberti and Pinson. Gilleland notched 14 of her 41 assists in the first set of the contest.

In set two, the Bobcats jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on the back of a pair of Lamberti kills. Eastern came back to win four of the next six points and took the lead for the first time in the set, 4-3. Karin Bull evened things up in the next point, before Krasowski smoked an attack by the OU defense putting EMU back atop Ohio, 5-4. That was the last lead the Eagles saw as the Bobcats won the next four points to take an 8-5 lead and never relinquished the advantage, taking the second frame 18-25. Crawshaw and Perinar each added three kills, while Krasowski, Roback and Short contributed a pair of kills apiece. Lamberti had her best set of the day going 8-for-13 for a .615 attack percentage. Gilleland added 12 of her assists in the second game. EMU looked at a two-set deficit heading into the 10-minute halftime.

The Bobcats took the opening point of the third frame off of a Kullerkann kill, but the Green and White turned around to win the next three points and take a 3-1 lead. Kullerkann ended the Eagles' run with another kill, but EMU knotted things back up, 4-4. The two squads traded points back and forth until Ohio went on a four point run to take an 11-7 lead and never looked back, earning a 19-25 set win and claiming the 2013 MAC Volleyball Tournament Championship. Crawshaw posted three kills, while Briner, Roback and Short each contributed two. EMU had its best offensive output of the match with a .200 attack percentage. Kullerkann's six kills led the set, while Lamberti posted four and Gilleland had 15 assists in the final set of the match.

The Eagles finished the 2013 season with an 18-16 record, while going 6-10 in MAC play. Head Volleyball Coach Kim Berrington completed her 18th season at the helm of the program and her squad finished the campaign on a high note as EMU took down Central Michigan University and Kent State University to earn the No. 7 seed in the 2013 MAC Tournament. Following the final weekend of the regular season, the Eagles rattled off a pair of victories in the tournament to earn a spot in the championship for the first time since 1990, however they fell to the eventual champion Ohio. Eastern's sophomore libero Smith finished the season with 684 digs, which ranked as the second-most in a single season at Eastern Michigan. This year marked the final season for seniors Roback and Short, each of who completed storied careers at EMU. Roback became just the seventh Eagle to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs, while Short was the fifth student-athlete in EMU history to notch 1,000 kills and 300 block assists. Short was also the first-ever non-middle blocker to accomplish the feat for the Green and White.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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