Michigan State University Athletics
Volleyball Faces Critical Road Matches
11/14/2000 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 14, 2000
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Final Big Ten Road Matches: The Spartans travel to Iowa City on Friday, Nov. 17 to face the Hawkeyes at 7 p.m. ET. On Saturday MSU moves to No. 8 Minnesota for a 7:30 p.m. ET match. Neither match will be televised or heard on the radio.
Iowa is 12-12 overall, 8-8 (T-5th) in the Big Ten Conference. The Hawkeyes split last weekend on the road, beating Purdue 3-0, but falling to Illinois 2-3. Iowa is led by Sarah Meyermann with 3.92 kills per game and Katie Panhorst at 2.97 pg. Fabiana de Abreu leads the team in assists at 9.64 per game, while Renee Hill is the top digger at 2.94 per contest. Panhorst averages 1.28 blocks per game, while Carolyn Giess contributues 0.77 pg. Iowa is 2-3 in its last five matches.
Iowa won the teams' last meeting on Oct. 21 in East Lansing 3-2 (1-15, 12-15, 15-10, 15-13, 15-11). de Abreu had a triple-double with 24 kills, 27 assists and 16 digs. Jenny Rood led MSU with 19 kills and 16 digs, while Christie Landry put up six kills, 48 assists, 13 digs and six blocks.
Iowa leads the series 21-18. MSU is 3-2 in its last five matches against the Hawkeyes. The Spartans are 8-8 at Iowa City. Two of the last three meetings have gone five games.
No. 8 Minnesota is 25-2 overall, 14-2 (T-1st) in the Big Ten Conference. The Golden Gophers won twice last weekend, defeating Illinois, 3-1, and Purdue, 3-0, on the road. UM has won its last four straight matches. The Gophers are led by Nicole Branagh and Stephanie Hagen at 5.57 and 4.17 kills per game, respectively. Setter Lindsey Berg puts up 14.22 assists and 0.63 service aces per game, while Branagh and Yvonne VanOort are tops in digs at 3.57 and 3.33 per game. Hagen is the team's leading blocker at 1.64 per game, while Charnette Fair adds 1.27 pg.
Minnesota won the teams' last meeting on Oct. 20, 3-1 (6-15, 15-8, 15-11, 15-4). Hagen had 19 kills, 10 digs and six blocks, while Branagh added 15 kills, 20 digs and five blocks. For the Spartans, Jenny Rood and Erin Hartley both tallied 18 kills, while Christie Landry had 54 assists and 16 digs.
Minnesota leads the series 27-13 and has won the last three straight meetings. The teams have not played a five-game match since Oct. 28, 1989 when Minnesota won at East Lansing.
Tough Finale: Going into last weekend, three of the Spartans' final five opponents in the 2000 regular season were ranked in the top 10, and four of the five teams were in the upper half of the Big Ten conference standings. Michigan State had beaten only Northwestern this season, but can now add OSU to the list.
Should They Be Proud?: The Spartans won back the State Pride flag on Wednesday, Nov. 8 by a 128-120 point margin, but lost the match to Michigan 3-2 (13-15, 15-9, 13-15, 15-7, 15-10). Sarah Gustin led all hitters with 23 kills while Jenny Rood (19), Erin Hartley (17) and Maren Witzel (12) all joined her in double figures. Angela Morley tallied a season-best 12 blocks and MSU ouhit the Wolverines .313-.209.
Hartley Hits 1,000: Junior outside hitter Erin Hartley tallied her 1,000th career kill in game four against Ohio State on Nov. 11. She now has 1,002 in her career to rank 11th on the all-time chart and is the 11th player in MSU history to reach the apex. Hartley is the second Spartan to get her 1,000th kill this season after Sarah Gustin did it earlier in the year.
Beating A Ranked Team: The Spartans finally overcame the ranking curse, defeating No. 13 Ohio State on Saturday, 3-1. It was the first win over a ranked opponent since defeating No. 21 Michigan 3-2 on Sept. 20, a span of five matches. MSU is now 3-7 versus opponents in the AVCA/USA Today top 25.
A Familiar Face In a Familiar Place: Sarah Gustin returned to play middle hitter for MSU on Nov. 11 due to an injury to Maren Witzel. Despinte not playing there for nearly two years after switching to outside hitter, Gustin tallied 20 kills on .600 hitting to go with 12 digs and six blocks. She is making up for lost time. After missing four matches with a foot injury, Gustin has tallied 23, 15, 24 and 20 kills in the four matches back. All numbers have led the team. She also has 18 total blocks and 51 digs during the three contests. Gustin leads the team with a 4.24 kills per game average. She now has 17 20-kill matches in her career, good for fourth-best all-time at Michigan State. She improved her career hitting percentage last weekend from .295 to .298.
Setting An Example: Christie Landry has amassed 1,197 assists on the season, sixth-best in a single season at MSU. For her career, Landry stands third on the all-time list as just the third setter at State to have 3,000 career assists (3,455). She has put up big numbers in the last three matches in other categories, too. Versus Michigan on Wednesday, Landry tallied seven kills, 73 assists and four blocks. Against OSU on Nov. 11, she had three kills, 61 assists, six digs and four blocks. Landry is averaging 1.06 blocks per game in the last four matches.
Three For All: Sophomore outside hitter Kyla Smith (No. 3) entered the MSU lineup versus Ohio State in the first game and did not come back out, sparking the team to a four-game win. Smith set season highs with five kills, 17 attempts, a service ace, 11 digs and two blocks.
Monster (Block) In The Middle: Angela Morley had 24 blocks last week and has 39 in her last four matches. Against Michigan last Wednesday, she had a season-best 12 blocks (4-8), including a career-high four block solos. Versus Ohio State on Saturday she had seven blocks. Two weekends ago, Morley tallied 10 blocks against Purdue and another five versus Illinois. In the last four matches she is averaging 1.89 blocks per game. She is now eighth-all-time at MSU in block assists and total blocks.
She Can Hit Two: Morley (No. 2) debuted on the MSU career hitting percentage list at No. 2 with a .317 (400-136-834) career percentage after attaining the qualifying 400th career kill over the weekend.
Accurate But Not Deadly: MSU has hit .300 or better as a team in four of its last six matches but has lost two of those matches.
Rood, Not Rude: Freshman outside hitter Jenny Rood has been a model of consistency on the outside for MSU. On Nov. 11 she had a career-high hitting percentage of .424 while tallying 18 kills, four digs and two blocks. She is averaging 3.83 kills per game over the last four matches.
In The Big Ten: As of 11/13 MSU was second in blocks per game at 3.16, third in hitting percentage at .271, fifth in kills per game (16.43), sixth in assists (14.71), seventh in service aces (1.39) and seventh in digs per game (14.85).
Individually, Jessica Sanborn leads the conference with a .420 hitting percentage, while Sarah Gustin is eighth at .328. Gustin is fifth in kills per game at 4.24, while Christie Landry is sixth in assists at 13.01 per game. Sanborn is fifth in blocks per game at 1.28, while Angela Morley is eighth at 1.25 pg. Morley is also seventh in service aces per game at 0.37.
In The NCAA: As of11/5, Jessica Sanborn was fifth in the country in hitting percentage at .422. As a team, MSU was 16th in the country in blocking at 3.02 per game.
Rankings: The Spartans fell out of the rankings this week for the first time this season. Two of MSU's final four opponents of the season, Wisconsin (6th) and Minnesota (8th) are in the top 10.
