Michigan State University
16-13, 9-9Big Ten
Rutgers
7-24, 0-18Big Ten
George Wins 550 as Spartans Sweep Rutgers
11/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Final Stats | Video Highlights
East Lansing, Michigan -- Michigan State evened its Big Ten record at 9-9 and improved to 16-13 overall with a three-game sweep of visiting Rutgers on Saturday (25-15, 25-17, 25- 16). The win was the 550th in the career of head coach Cathy George.
Freshman Alyssa Garvelink had a match-high 12 kills (tying her career high), hitting .667 (12-2-15) with a block and a service ace; classmate Rachel Minarick had 35 assists, hit .875 (7-0-8), and also contributed nine digs and two blocks. Allyssah Fitterer had seven kills with a team-best five blocks, while Chloe Reinig added nine kills on the night. As a team, MSU hit .393 (44-11-84), continuing a streak of strong hitting performances.
For Rutgers (7-24, 0-18 B1G), Lauren Cloyd and Michaela Anderson each had seven kills, while Nicole Bayer had 16 assists. The Scarlet Knights hit .167, and was limited to three blocks compared to MSU's seven.
"We came out with a strong game plan, stuck to it, and we had success," said Garvelink, who had nine kills and a career-best 11 blocks Wednesday at Northwestern. "I've had a couple of strong performances lately, which is helping my confidence grow. I really feel like we're starting to hit our stride. We know that we have things to work on, but every day we're getting stronger."
MSU had been starting hot against recent opponents, and against the Scarlet Knights, it continued the trend with a 7-1 and 10-3 leads, hitting .800 (8-0-10) before the visitors called their first time out; Garvelink had four of MSU's first eight terminations. Rutgers got the sideout out of the break, and went on a 5-2 run to make it 12-8 MSU. The Spartans countered with a 5-0 run, which featured an impressive diving save by Fitterer and a kill and a block by Reinig, and a Galloway service ace, to push the lead back to nine, 17-8. At 18-8, Rutgers used a 4-1 run to cut it back down to seven, but MSU twice got the sideout via service errors. With a 21-14 Spartan lead, Garvelink got a dump over the net and a Rutgers attempt went long to make it 23-14; after an MSU error, Fitterer got a cross-court kill followed by a RU error to seal an opening-set win. As a team, MSU hit .542 (15-2-24), as Garvelink led the way with five kills in the frame.
The second set was tighter - MSU used a 5-2 run to take a 10-6 lead, forcing a Rutgers timeout; out of the break, Rutgers scored the next three points to trim the lead to one at 10-9. MSU got back on track to score seven of the next eight points, with two each from Fitterer and Reinig, to push its lead to 17-10. A scrappy Rutgers team kept scoring points in small bunches, but the Spartans had an answer, as Reinig, Fitterer, and Garvelink kept adding to their totals while the visitors kept committing costly mistakes. MSU went on a 3-1 run - all on Rutgers errors - forcing RU to call a timeout at 20-13. A pair of Rutgers kills gave it momentum before a service error gave MSU the sideout, and the Spartans went back up 22-15 on a block by Jazmine White and Fitterer, her fourth of the night. Fitterer got MSU to set point with a kill on a block out of bounds, and Reinig got MSU its 2-0 lead with her ninth kill of the night.
In the third, a 5-0 run for the Spartans - fueled by two kills and a block by the freshman setter Minarick - gave MSU a 13-7 edge. The teams traded points until it got to 20-13, as neither team could muster more than back-to-back points. MSU got the next two points on RU errors, then a Cloyd kill on a Spartan blocking error cut it to 22-15. Minarick and Megan Tompkins kills got the Spartans to set point, and senior libero Kori Moster (11 digs) sealed the victory with a service ace.
With the win, MSU sweeps league newcomer Rutgers in straight sets in both matches this season.
MSU now readies for the final week of the regular season, hosting Purdue on Wednesday and playing at Iowa on Friday. The four Spartan seniors (Ryian Hubbard, Taylor Galloway, Jazmine White, and Kori Moster) will be honored in a post-game ceremony.
