Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
DePaul
Jenny Rood Sparks MSU Volleyball To Fifth-Straight Win
9/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 7, 2002
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The No. 12 Michigan State volleyball team improved to 5-0 with a 30-25, 30-17, 30-20 sweep of DePaul Saturday morning at the WMU Invitational. For the second straight match, the Spartans played with a revised lineup, but it didn't affect MSU's offense as the squad hit .442 for the match and four players had double-digit kills.
Junior Jenny Rood (Ada) returned to action after sitting out Friday' nights match due to a knee injury, and had 13 kills while hitting .556, three blocks and two service aces. Junior Sara Villwock (Fort Collins, Colo.) sat out her second straight game due to injury, and head coach Chuck Erbe also rested senior starter Angela Morley (Holland). But there were more than enough players able to step up and fill the voids.
Sophomore Kim Schram (London, Ont.) had a match-high 14 kills for the second straight match, senior Kyla Smith (Comox, B.C.) added 12 kills for the second straight contest, and redshirt freshman Brooke Langston (Germantown, Tenn.), had 10 kills and hit .563 in only her second career match.
"Everybody played hard," said Erbe. "They play just as hard whether they're starters or not, and everybody plays hard for each other, and that builds confidence."
Redshirt freshman Marley Bellwood (Battle Creek) had a match-high seven digs for MSU, and junior Nikki Colson (Lincoln, Neb.) added 44 assists and five digs.
MSU hit .382 in game one, but had trouble putting DePaul away. State led most of the way, but the lead was only 24-23 when a Smith kill followed by a block by Rood and Smith started a 6-2 run to end the game.
In game two, the Spartans hit an amazing .567, pounding 19 kills on 30 tries with only two errors. Schram had five of the 19 kills and Colson dished out 17 assists. Michigan State never trailed in the second game, rolling to a 12-4 lead and never allowing DePaul to get closer than six the rest of the way.
MSU closed out the match by hitting .387 in the third game. DePaul had a 13-11 lead before the Spartans took over. With the score tied at 15, Rood had two straight kills, and also added two service aces during a 6-0 run that game MSU command. Rood also put down another kill to end the match.
Langston's 10 kills made her the seventh Spartan to record double-digit kills in a match this season.
"I like seeing that balance," said Erbe, "because when you have that kind of balance you're a hard team to defend."
Michigan State concludes action at the WMU Invitational later today, meeting Wright State at 5 p.m.
