Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
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Virginia Tech
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EMU Volleyball Stumbles in Pair of Matches
9/9/2022 2:31:00 PM | Volleyball
Photo Galleries: vs. VT. vs. SLU.
MATCH 1 | Eastern Michigan 2, Virginia Tech 3 (31-29, 20-25, 22-25, 26-24, 9-15)
MATCH 2 | Eastern Michigan 2, Saint Louis 3 (25-20, 22-25, 18-25, 26-24, 12-15)
CHICAGO, Ill. (EMUEagles.com) - The Eastern Michigan University volleyball team dropped a pair of matches in five sets, Friday, Sept. 9 to Virginia Tech University and Saint Louis University inside of the McGrath Phillips Arena located on the campus of DePaul University. The Green and White look to get their first victory of the 2022 campaign Saturday, Sept. 10 against the tournament host, DePaul.
Against Virginia Tech, the Eagles offense was led by senior Raeven Chase (Toronto, Ontario - Michael Power Saint Joseph Catholic), who finished with 14 kills on the match while accumulating a hitting percentage of .417. Fellow seniors Krista Blakely (Detroit, Mich. - University High School Academy) added 11 and Samantha Basham (Granville, Ohio - Newark Catholic) chipped in with 11 as part of an Eastern Michigan attack that had four players with double-digit kills. The Green and White recieved 16 digs from freshman Emma McMahon (Monroeville, Ind. - Bellmont) to lead them defensively.
Versus the Billikens, the Eagles offense was paced by graduate student Callie Minshew (Brandon, Miss. - Mississippi State - Brandon High School), who finished with 13 kills on the match. Blakely added 11 with Basham also chipping in another 11 as part of a balanced Eastern Michigan attack. McMahon provided a match-high 19 digs along with five rejections each from both Blakely and Chase defensively.
How It Happened- MATCH 1
SET 1 | The Eagles survived a back-and-forth first set to win 31-29 in a stanza that featured four lead changes and was tied 17 times. Neither team led by more than four points in the match.
SET 2 | Eastern Michigan fell in the second set 25-20 to tie the match 1-1. Virginia Tech grabbed the advantage for good at 19-18 in a set that was tied up eight times before the Hokies took over in the second half of the set.
SET 3 | A set-three loss put the Green and White behind 2-1. The Eagles fought back from an eight-point deficit at 22-14, but Virginia Tech held on to win the set 25-22.
SET 4 | Eastern Michigan broke their two set losing streak and forced a fifth set with a 26-24 victory in set number four. A solid performance on the attacking end led the Eagles to victory within the set. Eastern Michigan put together a .333 attack percentage with 15 kills in the set win. After the lead changed hands eight times, the Eagles took control for good at 21-20 and rode that advantage to victory. The team got a solid defensive performance from a front row that blocked four Virginia Tech attacks in the stanza.
SET 5 | After dropping sets two and three, Eastern won set four, knotting up the game at two sets apiece to force a fifth set, but couldn't complete the comeback, losing the set ,15-9, and the match, 3-2. The Eagles fell behind by as many as six points before dropping the fifth set.
Match Notes- MATCH 1
»Eastern Michigan had four players in double figures in kills, with Chase earning 14 in her first match with leading kills in 2022. The pair of Blakely, and Basham equally registered 11 kills on the match with Minshew tallying 10. The loss goes down as the third match of the 2022 campaign that the Eagles have had three or more athletes register double-digit kills and the first with four.
»Sophomore Madeline Timmerman (Crystal Lake, Ill. - Central) had a match-high three aces in the loss for an individual season high. Timmerman was short one ace to tie her career high four aces set against Western Michigan Universty, Sept. 23, 2021.
» Eastern Michigan got a match-high 16 digs from McMahon, registering her sixth consecutive match with double-digit digs in her rookie season.
» The Green and Whites attackers were helped by a match-high 36 assists from junior Olivia Szylar (Itasca, Ill. - Lake Park). Within the 2022 campaign, the junior has registered a total 202 set assists, the most on the team thus far.
How It Happened- MATCH 2
SET 1 | The Eagles grabbed control on the first point and never trailed to secure the first set 25-20. Eastern Michigan led by as many as 10 points at 22-12 before finishing off the set. The team also supplemented their offense with three aces in the opening set.
SET 2 | Eastern lost set two, 25-22, to tie the match, 1-1. Saint Louis held the advantage for good at 18-17 in a set that was tied three times before the Billikens took over in the tail end of the set.
SET 3 | EMU then lost their second set in a row, falling behind in the match two sets to one. The Eagles fell in a tough set 25-18, trailing by as many as nine points as Saint Louis rode off with the lead at 2-1 in a set that was tied up just once before the Billikens took over.
SET 4 | The Green and White broke their two set losing streak and forced a fifth set once again, with a 26-24 victory in set number four. The Eagles persevered in a back-and-forth set to win in a stanza that featured four lead changes and was tied seven times. Neither team was able to grab a lead larger than four points along the way.
SET 5 | After dropping sets two and three, Eastern Michigan won set four, knotting up the game at two sets apiece to force a fifth set; But, similar to the match before they could not complete the comback, losing the set 15-12 and the match 3-2. The Eagles had a lead early in the set at 1-0 before Saint Louis took over.
Match Notes- MATCH 2
» Eastern Michigan never trailed on the way to winning the first set 25-20. The Eagles out-hit their opponent in the first set .212 to .125.
» For the fourth time in the 2022 season, Eastern Michigan had three players in double figures in kills. Minshew recorded her third match with double-digit kills and her first as the match leader with the Eagles. Both Blakely and Basham equally tallied 11 kills for the second time on the day, with the first match coming against Virginia Tech.
» Like the match before, Timmerman had a team-high three aces once again. With her three aces in both of today's matches, she currently ranks third behind Minshew and Burk who are tied with four in total service aces in a single match in 2022.
» Also following the first match trend was Szylar who helped Eastern's attackers with a match-high 36 assists.
» Minshew had a team-high 13 kills for Eastern Michigan. With her 13, Minshew registered a new individual season high with her previous record 11 kills coming against Xavier University, Sept. 3. In her career, the most kills she has tallied in a single match is 17 and has chalked up 18 total career matches with double-digit kills.
» Earning a career-high by one dig was McMahon with 19 total on the match to better her previous record 18 which was set twice thus far.
Historical Notes
» The first set in the first match of the day against Virginia Tech was the furthest a set has gone in 2022.
» Tonight's match-up with the Hokies of Virginia Tech was just the second meeting between the two. The five-set loss tied the all-time series 1-1 with the Eagles taking the very first win 3-0, Sept. 19, 1987, in Knoxville, Tenn.
» In just their third meeting, Saint Louis and Eastern Michigan faced off in its third neutral site match-up. This five-set loss to the Billikens gave the Missouri-based team the upper hand in the all-time series record, 2-1.
» The suffering of these two losses adds onto EMU's now 0-8 overall record of the 2022 slate.
Up Next
Looking for their first win of the 2022 campaign, the Eagles will close out their time at the DePaul Invitational by taking on DePaul, Saturday, Sept. 10, at 11 a.m. Central Time.
