Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
4-2
Duke
4-1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke | 12 | 25 | 23 | 25 | 15 | 3 |
| Michigan State | 25 | 22 | 25 | 23 | 10 | 2 |
Duke Bests Spartans in Five
9/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Allyssah Fitterer had the game open up for her after the second set, recording just two kills in the first two sets before finishing with a match- best 14 kills, seven digs, and two blocks. Megan Tompkins, who redshirted in 2013, made her first career start against the Blue Devils, and it paid off - she contributed nine kills and a team-best six blocks, seeing her first significant action this season. Chloe Reinig had 12 kills and hit .216, contributing five blocks (three solo), while Holly Toliver had 11 kills and three blocks to round out the trio recording double-digit kills.
Rachel Minarick had a career- best 42 assists and also contributed five blocks, four kills, and nine digs. Kori Moster had 24 digs, a match-best, while freshman Alyssa Garvelink had five blocks and six kills, hitting a match-best .455.
"I thought that we really saw flashes tonight of what we're capable of," said head coach Cathy George. "We also had some lapses, and made some timely mistakes that opened the door for Duke. Overall, we were better than we were against North Carolina last night, but we're very aware that we are a work in progress. Everything we're working on now is preparing us for the Big Ten season - and even the adversity and mistakes are helping to build what I believe we can achieve. We just have to get back to practice next week and continue to tighten up and work on the mistakes and areas that we have to improve."
Michigan State appeared to clean up many of its errors from the previous night vs. North Carolina, hitting .350 and taking the opening set 25-12. The Spartans slowly and steadily built to their lead throughout the opening set, turning a 4-4 tie into a 14-8 lead. MSU out-blocked the Blue Devils by a 4-0 margin in the opening set, and were aided by 11 attacking errors by the visitors. Reinig had three kills, a dig and a block, while Garvelink and Toliver had a pair each.
MSU jumped out to a large lead in the second set, taking 7-1 and 15-7 advantages in the set before Duke called a timeout. Out of the stoppage, the Blue Devils used a 6-1 run to make it a three-point ballgame, then scored two more after MSU called a timeout to pull within one, 16-15. While the Spartans were able to push their lead back out to three points (19-16), the Blue Devils scored nine of the final 12 points to claim victory in set two, as MSU committed three errors (of their seven to that point in the match) in that final stretch of the second set to allow Duke to come away with the win to even the match at a set each.
In the third set, MSU had its own comeback story, trailing by as many as seven points early in the frame (14-7) - but rallied from the deficit to eventually knot it up at 18-all with a run that was greatly aided by Duke errors and some big blocks by Garvelink and Fitterer. The game opened up for Fitterer on the offensive end as well, as she had five kills in the third compared to just two in first two sets combined. With the game knotted at 21, a service ace by Ryian Hubbard and kill by Minarick gave MSU a two-point lead, and the Spartans finished it off with kills by Toliver and Reinig sandwiched around a Sklar termination to seal the third set, 25-23.
Both teams had significant rallies in the fourth set. MSU opened up a 8-2 lead off of big kills by Toliver and Fitterer, and a pair of blocks by Tompkins. Duke got back into it, eventually tying the game at 17. From there, it was a point-for-point battle until MSU took a 23-21 lead on a Kori Moster ace; from there, Duke turned it on, getting a kill from Jordan Tucker and three consecutive blocks by Alyse Whitaker, two solo, to seal a 25-23 advantage and send it to a fifth set, the first for MSU this season. Whitaker also had four kills in the set, along with Jeme Obeime. Fitterer was MSU's top killer in the fourth with four kills, followed by Reinig who had three kills and two huge solo blocks.
Duke jumped on MSU quickly in the fifth set, taking advantage of three straight MSU errors to help build a 5-1 lead. MSU cut it to 5-4 with kills from each of its big hitters, but the Blue Devils fought to regain a lead with back-to-back kills by Emily Sklar. An Allyssah Fitterer kill brought MSU to within three at 12-9, but a pair of MSU errors gave the Blue Devils match point. Fitterer staved off the end with a kill, but a Jordan Tucker kill finished off the win for Duke, allowing them to split its weekend in Michigan.
The Spartans head west on Thursday for a pair of games at No. 22 Oregon and Oregon State next weekend, and will return home on Sept. 19-20 for the Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational.
NOTES: All-American Lauren Wicinski had had her uniform number raised to the rafters in Jenison Field House with the other All-America recipients. Wicinski earned All-America honors four times in her playing career, and finished 13th all-time in career kills (2,424) in the NCAA annals ... Saturday's game was also MSU's annual P'Jammin with the Spartans event, supporting the fight against children's cancer. September is Children's Cancer Awareness Month.
