Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
13-13, 6-9Big Ten
Nebraska
17-7, 11-4Big Ten
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 25 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 1 |
| Nebraska | 20 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
Spartans Battle, But Fall at Nebraska In Four
11/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Michigan State fell in a tight four-set affair at No. 11 Nebraska on Wednesday evening (25-20, 21-25, 22-25, 23-25), a the Spartans put up a valiant effort in one of the Conference's toughest road venues. MSU falls to 13-13 overall, and is 6-9 in Big Ten play.
MSU opened the match hitting .400, but committed 29 errors in the next three sets, hitting .000, .149, and .071 in the final frames. Chloe Reinig had 13 kills along with a pair of solo blocks, Allyssah Fitterer had 12 kills and two blocks, while freshman Alyssa Garvelink finished with 10 kills and five blocks, sharing the team blocking lead with senior Jazmine White. Rachel Minarick had 44 assists and eight digs, and Kori Moster had 14 digs. For the home team, Kelsey Fien had a match-best 17 kills, while Kadie Rolfzen had 15. Her twin, Amber, had five blocks and seven kills.
Michigan State jumped on the Huskers right out of the gate, running off to a 12-3 lead behind three kills and a pair of blocks from White. The Huskers retaliated by firing off seven of the next eight points to cut it to 13-10, with Fien getting three kills in the sequence. Two Nebraska errors, a Garvelink kill, and a block by Reinig helped MSU build its lead back to five at 17-12, but a 4-0 Husker run, capped by an Annika Albrecht ace, brought the home team to within one, 17-16. The Spartans clawed their way back to a five-point edge, 22-17, on kills from four different players, forcing the home team into its final timeout of the set. The teams traded point out of the final break, getting kills from Fitterer, White, and Reinig to close out the opening-set win. MSU hit .400 with just three attack errors, as Reinig (4-0-9, .444) and White (4-0-6, .667) paced the offensive effort.
The Spartans wasted little time setting the second-set tone, starting off with a Reinig block and a White kill, then pushing the lead to 6-2 on one kill from Garvelink and a pair from Reinig. The Huskers battled back to tie it at 6-6 on a pair of Spartan errors and two kills from Kadie Rolfzen, the first tie score of the match. Nebraska took its first lead of the night at 7-6, and maintained a one- or two-point lead as the teams traded points back and forth; trailing 13-11, MSU mounted a 5-1 run (aided by three Husker errors) to pull ahead 16-14, but Nebraska battled back to knot it at 17-17. With the teams tied at 18, a pair of Spartan attacking errors allowed the home team to pull ahead by two; out of the timeout, the teams three times traded points - Christenson, White, and Reinig getting the kills for the Spartans, and Fien getting three in a row on the other side to make it 23-21 in favor of the home team. A Kadie Rolfzen kill down the line, followed by a block by Amber Rolfzen and Melanie Keil, sealed the second-set victory for Nebraska. Fien had five kills in the set and hit .625, while Christenson led the Spartans with three. MSU had as many errors (12) as it had kills in the frame, but did come up with four more blocks for a match total of seven through two sets.
In the third set, the home team jumped out to a 6-3 lead, but Taylor Galloway had back-to-back kills, followed by a block, to knot the score at 6-6, and her third kill of the set allowed MSU to knot it again at 8-8. Back-to-back Fien kills made it once again a two-point game, but the teams began trading points, which allowed the Huskers to maintain a two-point lead until a block and a dump over the net pushed Nebraska's lead to 13-10, forcing the Spartans into their first time out of the set. Nebraska's largest lead came at 18-13; Galloway had trimmed the Nebraska lead to 15-13 with a big solo block on the left side, but then MSU committed three straight errors to allow the home team to post its largest lead of the night. With the home team leading 21-16, a sharp shot by Keil pushed the Nebraska lead to six, but the Spartans cut it back to four points on a Fitterer kill. With the home team leading 23-19, Hubbard came in to serve for MSU and trimmed it to three, but a Haggerty shot kissed the back line to get the Huskers the sideout and set point. After a serve sailed out of bounds and Kadie Rolfzen hit it long, allowing the Spartans back within two, 24-22. Fitterer (five kills) and Garvelink (four) led the visitors in the frame, and Galloway had three kills and a pair of stuffs.
MSU jumped out early in the fourth, shaking off the back-to-back set losses, Garvelink had a kill and two blocks as MSU led 5-1, forcing Nebraska into a timeout. A 5-0 run for the home team -fueled by back -to-back Kadie Rolfzen blocks - allowed the Huskers to pull ahead, and a hitting error by the Spartans forced the visiting bench to call a timeout. The Huskers led 9-6 before a Fitterer termination and Rolfzen shot long allowed MSU to trim it to one, but a 7-2 run gave Nebraska a 16-10 advantage. With the Huskers up 19-13, MSU went on a 7-3 run to trim the lead to just two points, using a pair of Fitterer kills and one from Megan Tompkins, and a Minarick ace made it a one-point game. Nebraska went up 23-21 on a kill by Etheridge, but MU countered with a Reinig shot, then tied when Tompkins and Garvelink combined on a block to make it 23-23. A Spartan shot went long to give the Huskers set point, and Amber Rolfzen sealed it with a big block at the left pin to secure a win.
MSU is home on Saturday evening, hosting Indiana in a 7 p.m. match.
