Kent State University
8-8, 2-2MAC
Central Michigan University
6-11, 1-3MAC
Volleyball Earns First Road Victory at Central Michigan
10/3/2015 10:56:00โฏPM | Women's Volleyball
MT. PLEASANT, Mich. โ The Kent State volleyball team earned its first road victory of the season and spoiled Homecoming for Central Michigan in the process with a 3-1 win (22-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-21) Saturday night at McGuirk Arena.
The Golden Flashes (8-8, 2-2 MAC) overcame a slow start offensively to finish the night with a .295 team attack percentage. In losing the first set, the Flashes were held to .212 hitting. Kent State was able to make the necessary adjustments and hit .322 over the final three sets.
"I am definitely happy with the outcome of tonight's match," said head coach Don Gromala. "It was a solid match for us overall and I felt that we were in control of throughout the four sets. We did a good job of executing our game plan and rebounding from Thursday's performance vs. Ohio. Our hitters stepped up and made a lot of good decisions. Part of our game plan was to get the ball to our middles in better situations and we did a good job of locating our sets better to give them opportunities to make plays."
Sophomore Kelsey Bittinger and junior Bridget Wilhelm had big nights for the Flashes. Bittinger led all players with 18 kills and had only 2 errors on 34 attacks for a .471 hitting percentage. Wilhelm posted 12 kills with 2 errors on 24 attacks for a .417 hitting percentage. Senior Kelly Hutchison added 12 kills for the Flashes. Junior Katarina Kojic recorded 47 assists.
Sophomore Challen Geraghty was the defensive catalyst once again with a match-high 25 digs. Bittinger added eight digs.
"It's huge to get a win in our first road match against a MAC opponent," Gromala said. "We played like we were at home. Nothing changed in our mentality and energy on the court. It's really important to be able to carry that over to two big road matches next week."
Kent State concludes its first time through the MAC East Division with road matches at Buffalo on Friday and rival Akron on Saturday.
