Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
9-6, 2-2Big Ten
Michigan
6-8, 1-3Big Ten
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 21 | 31 | 23 | 24 | 1 |
| Michigan State | 25 | 29 | 25 | 26 | 3 |
Spartans Share Flag, Down Michigan 3-1
10/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
WATCH: Highlights vs. Michigan
East Lansing, Mich. - - Michigan State downed archrival Michigan, 3-1 on Friday evening at Jenison Field House to earn a split in the season series. A Jenison-record crowd of 6,218 were on hand for the annual "Jam Jenison" event, and were treated to a match which featured 31 tie scores and 12 lead changes. The Spartans improve to 9-6 on the season and are now 2-2 in Big Ten play; Michigan falls to 6-8, 1-3 in Conference matches.
Sophomore hitter Chloe Reinig continued her dominance from earlier in the week at Chrisler, finishing with career bests of 26 kills and 60 attempts, adding a block and seven digs. Alyssa Garvelink had eight kills and a team-best six blocks, while classmate Rachel Minarick had 44 assists, seven kills, and three service aces.
The two teams were battling for the State Pride Flag, which has been maintained in East Lansing the last four seasons. The teams shared the Flag for the first time in history, as the teams tied each of the three tiebreaker categories: matches won (one each), sets won (four each), and total points (196 each over eight sets). MSU maintains a share of the Flag for the fifth straight season.
Reinig, who had 23 kills on Tuesday, hit .281 against the Wolverines in two matches this week, averaging 6.12 kills per set. Garvelink averaged 1.25 blocks per set, and set a career best with 12 kills on Tuesday.
With her 17 digs, Kori Moster moved into tenth place on the Big Ten career digs list, with 1,924.
Michigan State jumped out to a 12-6 lead in the opening set, thanks to a pair of four-point runs, and led by as many as six points before UM used a 6-2 run to trim the Spartan lead to just three points, 17-14. The home team regrouped and ran off six of the next seven points - three of which came from the potent swing of Reinig - to take a 23-15 lead. The Spartans allowed Michigan back into it with a 6-0 run - four of those points coming on MSU errors - to make it 23-21. After a timeout, the Spartans closed it out on a kill and a block by Garvelink to take the first set, 25-21. Krystalyn Goode hit .625 with five kills in the opening set for Michigan, recording more than half of the Wolverine's team kills (9). Reinig led all scorers with six kills, while Garvelink had two kills and two blocks.
The Wolverines earned their first lead of the match at 9-8 in the second set, but it was short-lived as MSU jumped back out in front 11-9 with a three-point run. The teams kept it close, with MSU pulling away with a two-point edge at 19-17, then extending it to 21-18 and forcing the Wolverines into a timeout. Out of the break, UM cut it to a point, but Garvelink came back with a swing from the right side, Galloway put away a tip, and then put up a block on Abby Cole that gave MSU set point. MSU committed back-to-back errors, and then an Adeja Lambert kill and another MSU error made it a tie game at 24-all. MSU fought off set points by Michigan four times, and with the match tied at 29, Michigan came back with a kill from Cole for its fifth set point, and a Spartan hitting error gave the second set to the Wolverines, 31-29.
The third set was a fairly tight affair, with neither team building to a significant lead - MSU held a 7-4 lead early, but UM stormed back with three straight to tie it, and MSU had a three-point lead again at 17-14, which it then chipped away to built to four points at 21-17. With MSU at set point 24-20, the Wolverines fought off set point three times, all on kills by Lambert, to force MSU into a timeout. Reinig closed out the third set in favor of MSU with her seventh kill of the set and 20th kill of the night to give the Spartans a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-23 win in the third.
It was more of the same tale of back-and-forth in the fourth set, as a 4-0 run for UM allowed the Wolverines to knot the score at 15-15, and the Wolverines used five straight serves from Caroline Knop to turn an 18-all tie into a 21-18 edge for the visitors. The Spartans refused to roll over for their guests, as MSU got back into it with kills by Minarick and Reinig, and tied the score at 23-23, at which point Michigan called a timeout. Goode and Reinig traded kills to push it to 24-all, at which point Minarick stepped to the line to serve. The freshman delivered back-to-back service aces to secure the victory for the Spartans.
