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Volleyball Drops Senior Day Affair with Northern Illinois
11/12/2022 6:02:00 PM | Volleyball
The Green and White will close its 2022 slate at Central Michigan, Nov. 16
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YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University volleyball team fell, 3-1, at the hands of Northern Illinois University Saturday, Nov. 12, on Senior Day inside the George Gervin GameAbove Center.
The team has one match remaining this season, against Central Michigan University, Wednesday, Nov. 16 inside the George Gervin GameAbove Center.
Despite the loss, it was a celebratory afternoon at the arena, as four Eastern Michigan student-athletes, Samantha Basham (Granville, Ohio-Newark Catholic), Krista Blakely (Detroit, Mich.-University High School Academy), Raeven Chase (Toronto, Ontario-Michael Power St. Joseph Academy), and Kamryn Stilwell (Parma, Ohio-Padua Franciscan), were honored as part of the program's annual Senior Day festivities.
Basham finished with 18 kills on the day to lead the Eagles offense. Defensively, EMU had three players reach double figures in digs, including a team-high 17 from Callie Minshew (Brandon, Miss.-Brandon-Mississippi State).
How It Happened
SET 1 | The Eagles couldn't hang on in a back-and-forth first set, losing 25-22 in a game that featured seven lead changes and was tied 16 times. Neither team led by more than four points in the set.
SET 2 | Eastern Michigan lost set two 25-12, digging a 2-0 deficit in the match. Eastern Michigan trailed by as many as 13 points as Northern Illinois grabbed the advantage for good at 5-4 in a set that was knotted up four times before the Huskies took over the lead.
SET 3 | Eastern Michigan fought back to pull within two sets to one, winning their first set of the match in the third stanza. The Eagles survived a back-and-forth set to win 25-23 in a stanza that featured six lead changes and was tied 12 times. Neither team opened up a lead of more than four points along the way. Eastern Michigan's front row had a solid defensive performance, blocking four Northern Illinois attacks in the stanza.
SET 4 | Eastern Michigan couldn't build off the set-three victory and fell in set four 25-13 to drop the match. The Eagles trailed by as many as 15 points as Northern Illinois grabbed the advantage for good at 3-2 and Eastern Michigan wasn't able to recover in a set that was knotted up two times before the Huskies took over.
Match Notes
» Despite dropping the first set, 25-22, Eastern Michigan displayed high-quality hitting when compared to its season averages in the first set. The Green and White hit .244 in the first set against the Huskies, more than 100 points above its first-set season average of .142 heading into the competition. Eastern's .244 hitting percentage in the first set was the best match-opening percentage for the team since it hit .385 in a first-set win at the University of Akron, Oct. 29, and is the sixth-best first-set hitting percentage for the team this season.
» Basham started the match on a hot streak, collecting a team-best seven kills on .400 hitting in the first half. The seven kills ties her first-set single-season high in 2022, while the .400 first-set hitting percentage is sixth-best mark for the Buckeye State native in a match-opening frame this season.
» Basham finished the match with a team-high 18 kills on .204 percent hitting. Today marked her 12th match of the 2022 campaign with 10-plus kills, and her first since recording 17 at Akron, Oct. 29. She has 37 career matches with 10 or more kills; Basham's single-season high for 10-plus-kill-matches came in 2021, when she recorded 18 matches of the sort.
» Minshew finished with a season-best 17 digs in today's contest against NIU. Her previous best came just yesterday, where she racked up 12 against the Huskies. Prior to this weekend's set of matches, her season-best total was 10, against Radford University, Sept. 16.
» Competitive from the jump, Eastern put up 22 points in the first set against NIU. That is the fourth-highest total in a first-set loss for the team this season.
» EMU has showed incredible resilience this season when down 0-2. Including today's 25-23, third-set win, Eastern has avoided a 3-0 sweep six times this season by winning a third set after falling behind its opponent 0-2.
Historical Note
» The Huskies put together a historic hitting performance against EMU in today's contest, finishing with a .367 hitting percentage against the Green and White. In addition to being the best single-match hitting performance by any team against the Eagles this season, it also goes down as the seventh-best hitting performance by any team in the history of the George Gervin GameAbove Center. It is the best mark since the University of Michigan hit .3894 against the Eagles, Nov. 13, 2008.
» Today marked the 43rd time that a Darcy Dorton-led Eastern Michigan team has played into at least the fourth set.
Up Next
Eastern is set to close its 2022 campaign against Central Michigan University Wednesday, Nov. 16. The season finale will go down as the 97th all-time match between the two rival institutions, with the Chippewas currently holding a 65-31 ledger in the series. The match is set to begin at 6 p.m.
