MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Missing the NCAA Tournament after falling out of the Mid-American Conference Tournament in the semi-finals, Central Michigan University is one of the 32 teams that were invited to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. They are one of four teams from the MAC to be invited along with Toledo, Buffalo, and Ohio.

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CMU was an at-large selection after finishing 20-11 on the year. They fell to Ball State in the semi-finals, 3-1 (25-23, 18-25, 23-25, 22-25), as it looked like their season had ended. It is their second appearance in the NIVC Tournament as they also made it in 2019 where they lost to South Dakota, 3-1. They will now travel to Athens, Ohio, four the four-team pod host by Ohio University. They will face Xavier University on December 1 at 5:00 p.m.. Ohio and Valparaiso University face off at 7:30 p.m. that same day. The winners of the matches will then see each other on December 2 at 6:00 p.m.

It is the second 20+ win season under seventh year head coach Mike Gawlik. He led CMU to 21 wins in 2019 and an appearance in the NIVC Tournament, too. The Chippewas finished the regular season second in the West Division with a 12-6 record behind Ball State’s 15-3 record. CMU won four of their last five matches of the year.

Mallory Hernandez, who was an All-MAC first team selection, led the team with 376 kills averaging 3.48 per set. This was her first season at CMU after transferring in from Georgia. Claire Ammeraal was also All-MAC first team and is the first Chippewa freshman to be named first team since 2008. Aly Gurtiza was then on the second team and Natalia Rejment made the All-Freshman team with Ammeraal.