4B — September 16, 2019
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
After
losing
two
of
its
last three games, the No. 24
Michigan volleyball team (6-2)
looked to right the ship on Friday
against Navy (4-4), a feat it
would accomplish after battling
through three close sets.
From the outset, things didn’t
look good for the Wolverines.
Michigan was down 11-8 early
against the Midshipmen in the
first set. Looking to get his team
back on track, Michigan coach
Mark Rosen called a timeout.
Coming out of the huddle, the
Wolverines
outscored
Navy,
17-11, en route to a 25-22 victory
in the first set. They would go on
to win the next two sets 25-22
and 25-21 to earn a 3-0 sweep.
Despite earning a sweep,
Rosen believes that the win left
much room for improvement.
“I don’t think we played to the
level of our ability, so for me, it’s
hard to look and say we pulled
these out,” Rosen said. I think it
never should’ve been that close.
For me, I think we can execute
better and represent better.”
While the team looked far
more disciplined and effective
after Rosen’s timeout, he insists
that he had little to say in the
huddle. Instead, he used the
break simply as a chance to let
his squad regroup. Clearly, the
strategy worked.
“(I was) just giving them a
chance to regroup and take
a step back and juts take that
time to re-gather themselves,”
Rosen said. “I thought that they
responded well.”
In
the
second
set,
the
Wolverines came out swinging,
quickly jumping out to an 8-3
lead — highlighted by an ace
from freshman middle blocker
May Pertofsky — and forcing a
Midshipmen timeout.
Errors, though, proved to be
a problem, with the Wolverines
committing three in the set to
allow Navy to tie the score at 11.
Overcoming these mistakes,
the Wolverines netted three
straight kills to push the lead to
14-11. They then held off a late
push from the Midshipmen after
a block from senior outside hitter
Sydney Wetterstrom and a Navy
service error, taking the second
set, 25-22.
Despite the team’s errors,
Michigan found a steady anchor
on offense in senior setter
Mackenzi Welsh, who totaled
10 assists in the set and 35 total
on the night. Rosen credited her
for helping the team’s offense
stabilize itself late in the set.
“She’s somebody who’s really
experienced,” he said. “There’s
a reason she’s our floor captain.”
With a chance to sweep,
Michigan eventually clinched a
25-21 victory thanks to six kills
from sophomore outside hitter
Paige Jones. The final blow came
on a spike from freshman middle
blocker Jess Robinson, who had
11 kills on the night, including
four in the final set.
“She doesn’t really bounce
balls straight down very often,”
Rosen said, “but she hits so hard
and so high and with really good
range that she just gets a lot of
kills.”
One thing is certain: Friday’s
win
didn’t
come
without
problems, as Rosen will be the
first to tell you.
“I thought today we were
very up and down,” he said. “We
certainly are striving to be a
more steady team than that, but
right now that’s all I can go of is
what I see and that’s where we
were and we’ve gotta work on
that.”
Deep into the third set,
freshman defensive specialist
Amber Beals lofted the ball in
the air and smacked it to the
opposing side of the court.
The ball ricocheted off the
defender’s arm, notching the
fourth service ace of the day
for the Wolverines.
But it wasn’t just more
aggressive serving that allowed
the No. 24 Michigan volleyball
team (6-2) to overtake Eastern
Michigan
(3-5)
in
three
straight sets on Sunday —
adjustments in all aspects of
the game, particularly weak
serves, revealed a constantly
adapting Wolverine team. It
showed a group who knows its
strengths and weaknesses and
knows how to adjust.
The first set of the day was
a tit-for-tat slugfest that put
Michigan on its heels. With
several
lead
changes
and
errors, the Wolverines found
their way out of the first frame
with a three-point win. A few
serves found the net instead
of the floor and certain passes
ran errant while Michigan
attempted to establish itself.
In part, the Eagles’ unique
system — characterized by
running high balls to the
outside,
tricking
blockers
into
earlier, slower
attempts
at
the
ball
—
attributed
to
the
Wolverines’
early
struggles.
But
after
that first set,
having
seen
the
opposing
system,
the
more
talented
Michigan team took the lead
and never looked back.
Serving became an asset
rather than a liability. The
blocking became crisp and
dominant. Other players saw
the floor and made immediate
contributions.
While not all serves landed
as aces, many were superbly
placed, often forcing the setter
to run all over the floor and
play out of system.
“Aces are good, but we look
at aces as a nice thing, but more,
it’s what’s happening on all the
balls,” said Michigan coach
Mark Rosen. “Is the setter
standing at the net where she
wants to stand, running her
offense where she wants to
run it from? Or is she on the
run and moving off the net?
If our serving is tough enough
where we’ve got their setter on
the run, then hey, that’s not as
good as an ace, but it’s awfully
close.”
Making proper adjustments
is a running theme for the
Wolverines this year, with
Sunday’s win cementing that
idea.
Earlier
in
the
match,
senior outside hitter Sydney
Wetterstrom struggled. The
offensive workhorse’s typical
ferocity was missing, often
whiffing
on
routine
spike
plays. So Rosen pulled his
starter out of the rotation to
let Wetterstrom see the game
from a different perspective.
After
the
needed
mental
break, she went back in and
dominated — finishing the day
with 11 kills.
A testament to the team’s
depth
and
mindset, the case
of
Wetterstrom
is
a
frequent
occurrence
for
Michigan
this
year.
“Sometimes
you just need a
break,”
Rosen
said.
“And
we
have the depth
to be able to do
that, so I thought across the
board today, people who went
in, they were ready to go in,
and the level stayed high.”
Now, the team is looking
to reconcile this idea with its
record. After dropping two
games to unranked opponents
Missouri and Dayton at the
Dayton
Invitational,
the
Wolverines will look to shake
early errors and focus on their
advantages.
While anyone can look at
a straight-set win and see
a
dominant
performance,
Michigan’s
strength
comes
in acknowledging the early
challenges — then adjusting to
roll over the competition.
Six straight sets
Michigan sweeps Navy on Friday, Eastern Michigan on Sunday in show of dominance as Big Ten play gets closer
TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer
Jones breakout lifts Wolverines
After an underwhelming start
to a season in which she figured
to be the Michigan volleyball
team’s top offensive weapon,
Paige Jones put a dent in any
notion of a sophomore slump on
Friday night.
In her best performance of the
young season, the sophomore
outside hitter posted 12 kills on 29
swings to propel the 24th-ranked
Wolverines to a sweep of Navy
(4-4).
Despite
a
lackluster
.152
hitting percentage — a 43-point
dropoff from last season’s clip
— Michigan (6-2) continued to
rely on Jones to carry a large
portion of the offense through its
first seven matches. She entered
Friday with more attack attempts
than any other Wolverine except
senior outside hitter Sydney
Wetterstrom.
Coming off an appearance
on the Big Ten All-Freshman
Team in 2018, little stood in
Jones’ way of
becoming one of
the conference’s
best pin hitters.
That
is,
aside
from herself.
Through
Michigan’s first
six matches of
the season, Jones
committed
a
team-high
29 errors and
recorded a hitting percentage
above .250 only once. Talent
has never been a question with
Jones — the Ohio high school
state record holder for kills in a
single match and season — but
errors have cost her a chance at
dominance.
While it’s already tough for
an outside hitter to produce
when they’re at the top of every
opposing scouting report, self-
inflicted
errors
are
costly.
Freshmen in particular often find
themselves prone to mistakes,
and Jones was no different a
season ago when she averaged
over 1.5 attack errors per set.
This season’s figure was hovering
around a similar mark before she
made just two errors on Friday
while posting a season-best .345
hitting percentage.
Wolverines’
coach
Mark
Rosen subbed her out in favor of
sophomore Abbey Malinowski
after just six points, citing Jones’
diversion from the game plan.
Jones didn’t sit on the bench for
long, and she made her presence
felt upon returning. She tallied
a team-best four kills on seven
errorless
swings
even
after
stumbling out of the gate.
“When (Jones) went back in,
she really dialed it in,” Rosen
said. “That’s a great skill. We’re
not always going to have our best
night on any given night but the
ability to in-match alter where
you’re at and get it under control,
Paige has done that numerous
times. Give her a breather, (then)
she comes back in and does a
really nice job.”
Two of her four kills came at
key moments late in the frame,
breaking a tie at 18 and giving
Michigan a three-point lead
at 22-19. Her timely front row
execution wasn’t
the
only
place
she left her mark,
though, as her
serve kept Navy
out
of
system
for most of the
match. Jones is
the team’s only
starter
with
a
jump serve — a
technique
used
to
add
power
and height to the move by using
a leaping approach to strike the
ball.
Her 12-to-14 ace-to-error ratio
is a big step forward from her
39-to-70 mark as a freshman and,
so far, has made the difference in
some tight sets.
“I’m trying right now to just
tell myself to go out and have fun
and play,” Jones said on Sunday
after recording 15 kills in a sweep
of Eastern Michigan. “When I
think about stuff too much is
when I struggle a little bit, but my
teammates definitely help me and
help me feel more comfortable on
the court to be able to go out and
play volleyball and have fun.”
Emerging when her team
needs her most is something
Jones is working to embrace now
that she has a year of experience
under her belt. She was the
team’s lone freshman in the
starting lineup last season — an
opportunity that allowed her
to learn on the fly as the season
progressed.
But for Jones, such experience
brings
the
added
pressure
of knowing nothing is new
anymore.
“She
has
really
high
expectations for herself,” Rosen
said. “She’s a perfectionist, as
most of our players are. She puts a
lot of pressure on herself, has a lot
of expectations and sometimes
needs to be able to take a step
back. My advice I have for her is
to just play the game. … As she
gets more comfortable doing
that, we’re going to see some
really great things from her.”
Jones put forth her season-
best performance in kills-per-set,
attack efficiency and blocking in
Friday’s sweep. Now, it becomes
a matter of making such a
performance the status quo.
“She can be really, really
good,” Rosen said. “… I think she
can do that on a regular basis and
certainly that’s our expectation,
but we’ve got to get her there.”
The Wolverines were on the
ropes.
Midway through the second
set, Michigan volleyball coach
Mark Rosen called a timeout.
His team trailed by a point after
scoring only one of the previous
seven. Eastern Michigan was
rolling.
But Rosen rallied his team,
and the Wolverines (6-2) took
the next three points. They
never looked back en route to
a 25-22, 25-18, 25-19 victory.
Despite
dominating
just
moments before, the Eagles
(3-5) completely fell apart after
Rosen’s timeout and never led
again.
“(Before the timeout,) we
were just making a lot of errors,”
Rosen said. “… We just want to
make sure we can play our game
and don’t give them free points,
and I thought they did a really
good job after that, and then the
game flipped.”
The first set was a largely
back-and-forth
affair
early
on, with neither team leading
by more than one through
the first 13 points. The Eagles
managed to grind out a 12-8
lead, their largest of the match,
but
Michigan
battled
back
to even the score at 17. From
there, crucial kills — especially
from sophomore outside hitter
Paige Jones — propelled the
Wolverines to their first set win.
“They’re a very different
tempo than we are,” Rosen said.
“… it just took them awhile to
get used to the rhythm, and
once they did, our block got a lot
better and then our defense got
a lot better after that.”
Using
these
defensive
adjustments,
the
Wolverines
maintained their rhythm early
in the second set, opening
with
two
consecutive
kills
from
freshman
opposite
hitter May Pertofsky. Jones
and
senior
outside
hitter
Sydney Wetterstrom anchored
Michigan’s
offensive
attack,
notching four kills each in the
second set. Wetterstrom would
finish the match with 11 kills,
including a textbook spike to
clinch the second set for the
Wolverines.
Jones
finished
with a team-leading 15 kills, a
sensational number in a match
that finished in just three sets.
“I’m trying right now to tell
myself to just go out there and
have fun and play,” Jones said.
“When I think about stuff too
much is when I struggle a little
bit, but my teammates definitely
help me feel more comfortable
on the court to be able to go out
and play volleyball and have
fun.”
Michigan
dominated
the
third set, jumping to an early 8-3
lead and riding that momentum
through the end of the match.
The offense largely ran through
senior setter Mackenzi Welsh,
who tallied 15 assists in the
third set and a whopping 42 for
the whole match.
“Mack is doing a great job
being
floor
captain,”
Jones
said. “She’s the one that really
makes sure that when we go
into the huddle, we all make eye
contact.”
The production didn’t stop
there. Junior libero Natalie
Smith added a team-leading 12
digs, and Jones and Welsh added
11 and 10 digs, respectively.
“Our passing, our first contact
was really good tonight, and
that’s something we’ve been
spending a lot of time working
on,” Rosen said. “Overall, I
think we did a really good job.”
JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer
DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer
BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
The Michigan volleyball team won both its matches over the weekend, sweeping Navy on Friday and Eastern Michigan on Sunday to move to 6-2 on the season.
‘M’ wins with mid-game adjustments
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore outside hitter Paige Jones busted out of a slump on Friday night, helping Michigan to two sweeps on the weekend.
When (Jones)
went back
in, she really
dialed in.
People who
went in, they
were ready to
go in.