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.

