Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
Milwaukee
Volleyball Headed To Round Two of NCAAs
12/2/2000 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Dec. 2, 2000
Michigan State defeated Wisconsin-Milwaukee 15-6, 15-4, 7-15, 19-17 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 2. Playing on the campus of UCLA, in historic Pauley Pavilion, MSU raised its record to 18-12 overall, while the Panthers end their season at 23-5.
Junior outside hitter Erin Hartley led the Spartans with 14 kills on .333 hitting with 18 digs and six blocks. Sarah Gustin also played well, contributing 13 kills, five digs and six kills. Four Spartans contributed five or more blocks in the match. The 19 points scored in the fourth game were the most for MSU all season.
"This was a nice win," said Michigan State head coach Chuck Erbe. "I made some subs in game three and we didn't play well. We let them (UWM) back into the match. Fortunately, we played well enough to win game four."
The Spartans dominated both the first and second games. In game one, MSU hit .515 and outblocked the Panthers 4-0. Gustin hit .833 in the game with five kills, while Hartley also had five kills on .625 hitting to go with three blocks and four digs.
The second game was another solid Spartan victory as MSU got out to a 9-1 lead and cruised to the 15-4 win. Hartley and Gustin both added three more kills and the Spartans outhit UWM .406-.070 and again outblocked the opponent 4-0.
After the intermission the Spartans look liked a different team, as did Wisconsin-Milwaukee. UWM took a 6-2 lead before MSU stopped the bleeding with three straight points. The Panthers came back to score eighth straight and all but seal the game at 15-4. MSU fought for a few sideouts and managed to score two more points before a Spartan hitting error ended the game at 15-7. Jenny Rood led the Spartans with four kills but hit very poorly, as did the whole team, recording a .000 hitting percentage to Milwaukee's .250. Michigan State subbed in Jessica Sanborn and Maren Witzel at the beginning of the game. It was Sanborn's first action since Oct. 13 when she was sidelined with a broken foot. Witzel had also been out of action for MSU for the last few matches with foot problems. The substitutions seemed to throw State off, however, and a rhythm never developed.
The original starting six came back into the lineup for game four but the Panthers had confidence by then. MSU took a 3-0 lead but couldn't hold it. Tied 5-5, UWM then took the lead and opened it up to 10-6. Hartley rotated into the serving position and led the Spartans to three straight points to get them right back into the match. A Panther timeout led to another mini-rally for UWM and the team looked to close out the match up 13-9. MSU fought back and a Gustin block solo got the team to within three. An Angela Morley block solo gave the Spartans 11 points and a Panther hitting error got the team back within one at 13-12. UWM took the game to game point on a kill but Landry backset over the net to give MSU a sideout. A block solo and precision kill down the line by Hartley evened the game at 14-all. The game was then tied at 15, 16 and 17 before Jenny Rood stepped up with two huge kills to end the match. MSU hit .291 to .159 in game four and outblocked the Panthers 8-2.
Michigan State plays No. 4 seed and 11th-ranked UCLA (23-7), who advanced to the second round after beating Morgan State 3-0 on Saturday night, in Pauley Pavilion on Sunday, Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. ET.
