The NMU volleyball team finished off a set of home games with two victories during last weekend’s conference play, bringing the team’s record back over .500 and delivering a well-deserved confidence boost that the team hopes will lead to victories during this weekend’s away games.
The Wildcats (8-7 overall, 4-3 GLIAC) defeated Findlay 3-1 with set scores of 25-21, 25-13, 21-25, 25-16. In addition, the ‘Cats delivered then-No. 25 (American Volleyball Coaches Association poll) Hillsdale their first conference loss this season in a 3-1 victory with set scores of 25-17, 25-23, 23-25, 26-24.
Senior captain Mandie Meyer led the ‘Cats with 17 kills, followed by 16 kills by freshman Andree Ring.
NMU head coach Dominic Yoder attributed the victory to perseverance and consistency.
“Our keys to victory are about confidence and competition, what they did Saturday was competing at the top level. It’s an internal struggle to see if they bring that intensity out on the court every single game,” Yoder said.
Senior libero Cassie Osiecki broke the NMU record for career digs on Sept. 19 against Ferris State. Osiecki had 22 digs against Findlay and 14 against Hillsdale for a current career total of 1,565 digs.
Yoder said Osiecki’s leadership on the court is a great asset to the team.
“Osiecki’s our libero, so she has to anchor our defense,” he said. “Having someone of that high caliber is important to us and I think that that’s evident considering she broke the digs record.”
Ring, an outside hitter, said that the team feels good about their performances.
“It feels really good to be over .500. The whole team had tons of passion for playing this weekend, especially in the game versus Hillsdale. The team has gotten better and a lot more meshed and I think that we really pulled together last week,” she said.
The next few games should be victories, Ring said, if the team can keep their sense of unity on the court.
“We gained a lot of confidence last week, and hopefully we’ll keep it up for the next matches,” she said. “Keeping the high-intensity feeling is our focus this week.”
Yoder also said that while win-loss records look good on paper, the team does not use records to gauge themselves or their opponents.
“I’m okay with the team having a losing record as long as they’re competing at their potential. They played well against Findlay, but they played great against Hillsdale. The team played at the level at which they’re capable of playing and that’s the first time all year long that we’ve played that well,” he said.
Yoder said the changes being made to the team’s offense on the left side not only helped in last week’s victories but should contribute to future wins because the outside hitters have been steadily improving.
“The philosophy all season has been consistency so we’re looking for our left side and middle attack to be consistent. Our serve reception also has to be consistent and that equates to serving tough, which we did very well against Hillsdale and it’s something I’m hoping we can continue with in the coming weeks,” he said.
Both of the games this weekend will be away, as the Wildcats head out to Ohio. On Oct. 2 at 7 p.m., the ‘Cats will play Tiffin University (2-14 overall, 0-7 GLIAC). On Oct. 3 at 1 p.m., the ‘Cats will compete against Ashland University (7-8 overall, 3-4 GLIAC).
Yoder said upcoming opponent Ashland is a quality competitor that has a good coaching staff which runs traditional styles of offense and defense.
“Ashland has a couple of players who are really good. They run a perimeter style defense. They’re offense is a quick attack [and] they play it very well, so we’re going to have to do a better job playing it on our side of the net,” Yoder said.
The Wildcats will return home on Oct. 23, when they will host a weekend of matches against Saginaw Valley State University and Lake Superior State University.
