by Andrew Kiser
Five set volleyball matches have a unique air about them.
Teams in the fifth set can either celebrate a hard fought match or think about what could have happened differently. For the CMU volleyball, they were on both ends this weekend when they competed against Regis University and Chadron State College.
“(Fifth sets) are fun and there is a tense fell in the air when you play in them,” Outside hitter Mackenzie Edwards said.
Friday, the Mavs faced off against Regis. The first set saw the Rangers take advantage of several errors made by CMU and won, 25-22. The Mavs committed seven attack errors and two service errors.
CMU was able to win the next two sets, 25-23 and 28-26. In the fourth set, the Mavs almost put Regis away twice, but the Rangers held off and won, 27-25.
In the fifth set, Regis led most of the set and ended up winning, 15-9. For CMU, Edwards finished with 23 kills and 12 digs, while teammate Allison Smith added 19 kills and seven digs. With the loss, the Mavs snapped their eight game win streak.
The next day the team traveled to Nebraska and faced off against Chadron State. The first set saw Edwards record eight kills and the Mavs won, 25-20.
“I personally think with our middle pulled out (Chadron’s) middle so there was only one blocker and my teammates just set me up,” Edwards said.
The Mavs then easily won the second set, 25-13, in a set, which they never trailed. The team had five aces in the set. Libero Kricket Adleman had three aces and Edwards had two.
“What I told the team in those first two sets is that we did not have a lot of errors,” Head coach Dave Fleming said. “We usually have more kills than the other teams we play because we are so much more physical. We have to limit on our silly mistakes.”
In the next set, the Eagles found themselves taking advantage of several CMU mistakes. The Mavs had 11 errors and Chardon won, 25-23. For the team, they believe their sloppy play came from being over-confident.
“We were confident, maybe too confident, we thought they would give up in that set, but they came back and fought,” Edwards said.
“(Chadron) was playing with more confidence,” Fleming said. “Their attackers were ripping down the ball. Our defense was not adjusting to them, we thought they were going to roll over and die, but they did not, they are a good team.”
The fourth set saw CMU commit double digit errors again with 10. The Eagles were able to capitalize and were in control early in the set and won, 25-18.
With the possibility of losing another five set game, CMU saw themselves behind early 4-1. But the Mavs slowly clawed back and tied the set, 7-7.
Then the Mavs played like they did in the second set and won the next eight points to pull away from the Eagles and won 15-7.
“I did not think we were playing with a lot of confidence and if Chadron got on a roll, I did not think we could come back,” Fleming said. “I told them we were a better team if we were more confident and physical than them.”
Edwards finished the match with 16 kills, nine digs and three aces. Camille Smith and Gabi Dias finished with 13 and 11 kills respectively. CMU had a total of 63 kills while Chadron State had 44.
“It is a relief when you win and good teams find ways to win,” Fleming said. “It is important to know that even if we are not playing are best we can come out with a win.”
With the win and loss over the weekend, the Mavs are 9-3 for the season. The team’s next game is away Friday, Sept. 30, against Adams State. The next home game is at 7 p.m., Oct. 7, against CSU-Pueblo.
