Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
8-4, 1-0
Indiana
9-4, 0-1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 25 | 25 | 22 | 25 | 3 |
| Indiana | 17 | 18 | 25 | 21 | 1 |
Spartans Win 3-1 in B1G Opener
9/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The sophomore duo of Allyssah Fitterer and Chloe Reinig each had 13 kills, while Fitterer tied her season best with six blocks and also hit .417 (13-3-24). Freshman Alyssa Garvelink finished with a season-high nine kills and tied her collegiate best with seven blocks, (one solo). Rachel Minarick contributed 38 assists, three kills, and three service aces in addition to three blocks, while senior libero Kori Moster had 14 digs.
MSU out-blocked its hosts 14.5-9 on the night, and hit .180 compared to .076 for IU. MSU was a half a block shy of its season-best 15 it had in early September vs. Duke.
"Getting a win in the opener is important, and a boost for us for sure," said head coach Cathy George. "We saw some good things, but also some things we obviously want to clean up. We'll do our work tonight now and get ready for Purdue tomorrow night."
MSU jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set, forcing the Hoosiers into a timeout. Galloway served four straight points, before Morgan Leach got the sideout. MSU led by as many as six points at 12-6, but the host Hoosiers cut back into the Spartan advantage, aided by a trio of MSU service errors. Two points would be as close as the Hoosiers would come, as MSU closed out the first set on a 9-3 run to take a 1-0 match lead. Galloway had three of MSU's final nine points in the set, tying Allyssah Fitterer for the opening-set lead in kills with four; Minarick had a pair of kills (including the set point), and added 11 assists. The Spartans hit .464, and out-blocked their hosts by a 2.5-0 margin.
The second set started tight, but MSU opened up a 3-3 game with a 6-0 run, fueled by two kills from Garvelink and a pair of service aces from Minarick. The two teams traded points back and forth, as the Spartans maintained a lead of seven or eight points, as a block by Jazmine White and Garvelink at the left pin forced IU into a timeout at 19-11. With MSU leading 21-13, the Hoosiers went on a 4-0 run, as Megan Tallman's kill was followed by back-to-back Awele Nwaeze blocks, then a Spartan error to cut the lead to four, 21-17. MSU called a timeout to regroup, then went on a 4-1 run to close out the set, capped by two straight kills by Fitterer to seal it. As Fitterer and Galloway had four kills each in the first, it opened the game up for Reinig (four kills) and Garvelink (six kills) in the second frame.
Other than a 3-0 run that separated MSU from the Hoosiers at 3-3, the teams traded points in the early going of the third set, which stayed close longer than either of the first two sets. With MSU holding a 10-8 lead, MSU rattled off three straight points to push it to 13-8, its largest lead to that point in the set. However, three Spartan errors allowed the Hoosiers to cut it to one (13-12), and then back-to-back kills by Taylor Lebo and Amelia Anderson tied the score at 14-14, capping a 6-1 run for IU. The Hoosiers took their first lead of the night at 16-15 as a Reinig attempt sailed long, and pushed it to 21-16 as a 5-0 Hoosier run started with back-to-back MSU errors, then got a big block from Anderson and McDonald, and then a kill from McDonald before another MSU shot sailed long to cap the rally. In all, it was a 15-3 run for the Hoosiers, to trail by two (13-8) to take a 23-16 edge.
Not to roll over easily, the Spartans went on a run of their own outscoring their hosts 6-1 to make it a 24-22 game; a Lebo kill sealed it for the home team to send it to a fourth set. Garvelink had three blocks and a kill in that 6-1 Spartan run, giving her three-set totals of nine kills and seven blocks, establishing new career bests in both. The Spartans hit -.029 in the third, committing 11 errors - one more than they had in the first two sets combined.
MSU took a six-point lead in the fourth set (12-6), but IU battled back with a 9-3 run to knot the score at 15-all. A tight battle ensued from there, as IU called a timeout after back-to-back points on a Galloway kill and Reinig and Fitterer block, and out of the TO a Fitterer kill gave MSU a 22-19 lead. McDonald got the kill to trim it back down to two, but Fitterer and Reinig pushed it to match point with kills, and an error by Lebo gave MSU the fourth-set win and match victory.
The Spartans move on to play Purdue, a five-set winner over Michigan on Friday, on Saturday at 7 p.m.
