Michigan stays undefeated in win over Mississippi State, but struggles with errors

Over the last year, Michigan volleyball coach Erin Virtue has pushed her team to limit sloppy mistakes in her quest to turn a struggling program into a successful one. For the most part this season, her team has answered the challenge, going 6-0 to begin her second season at the helm. 

But Friday, despite the Wolverines (6-0) sweeping Mississippi State (1-3) 25-22, 26-24, 27-25, Michigan fell back into old habits of careless errors — the exact kind that Virtue has striven to eliminate from her team’s play. 

“I think a lot of the errors we made were aggressive,” Virtue said. “Especially our service errors. We were trying to find better ways to get them out of system, because they were doing a really nice job from service or from the passing side of things. So sometimes when you’re looking to be more aggressive and try to get things out of their system, you’re going to make some errors.”

The night began well for the Wolverines as they took a commanding 17-11 lead in the first set. Two aces from Valentina Vaulet and key kills from junior middle blocker Serena Nyambio and senior middle blocker Jacque Boney had Michigan cruising to a dominant set win. But a good hit from the Bulldogs stopped their progress in its tracks. A blocking error and sophomore outside hitter Valentina Vaulet taking a ball to the chest led the Wolverines to call a timeout up 17-14. 

The timeout was ineffective, though and Mississippi State scored two more points before Vaulet finally got a kill and stopped the bleeding at five points straight. Michigan fought through opposition from the Bulldogs with key kills from freshman outside hitter Ella Demetrician and a smooth tip from Boney gave the Wolverines the 25-22 set win. 

Michigan’s errors didn’t go away after the first set, either. Despite Demetrician hitting strong kills early on, stellar play from Mississippi State kept the Wolverines down two points for much of the set. Michigan didn’t help itself either, recording six service errors in the second set alone. Mistakes like that are the epitome of what Virtue hopes to eliminate in her team, and the players know it. 

“I think the errors we especially want to limit are those controllable ones, especially going back to serve,” Demetrician said. “It’s hard to find that happy medium of being super aggressive when you step back there and not missing. So I think just trying to find whatever is comfortable for you.” 

But the Bulldogs made errors of their own, and two blocks from Boney swung momentum in the Wolverines’ favor and put Michigan up 17-16. More errors from Mississippi State, along with two stellar kills and an ace from Demetrician, put Michigan back on top, 23-20, and a Vaulet kill sealed the set win for the Wolverines despite a late push from Mississippi State that forced the set to extra points. 

“(Demetrician) earned a starting role on Wednesday against Eastern Michigan, and then this was her second match as a starter,” Virtue said. “As a freshman, we’ve been really impressed with her. I’ve been impressed with how adaptable she is, and she reads the game really well, even at the college level. … I thought she blocked well, especially in sets two and three and then, and just did a really nice job from the attack and block side of things.” 

Despite recording fewer service errors in the third set, the Wolverines’ errors increased with seven, equalling their total from the two preceding sets. Demetrician and Vaulet in particular struggled with errors in this set, Demetrician with five and Vaulet with two errors and one service error. At the same time, the two had the the first and third-highest amount of kills on the team with 14 and eight respectively, and both are young players finding their places in the game. Virtue acknowledges that that process involves making mistakes.

“I think there’s a lot of ways that Valentina can help this team,” Virtue said. “She’s a really good attacker, of course. … I’m excited to see her progression, especially as she’s on the court the entire game, where she can be a weapon from the back row, as she is from the front row. And so that’s a portion of our game that we’re still working through.”

What’s more, Mississippi State committed seven errors of their own, evening out the points. From there, it was just a matter of Michigan pulling itself together for the win, which it did as the Wolverines took advantage of a free ball from the Bulldogs to set up outside hitter graduate student Allison Jacobs up for a cross-court kill. Mississippi State junior outside hitter Arianna Beckham couldn’t handle the block, sealing the win. 

Ultimately, the win was a win for Michigan, which remains undefeated. Already, the Wolverines are only one win shy of matching their total from last season. But the Bulldogs helped Michigan win with mistakes of their own, and that won’t always be the case.

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