Spartans Sweep Morgan State to Open Home Tournament

Saturday, September 3

East Lansing, Mich.

12:00 PM

Michigan State University

4-0

Morgan State

0-5

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Morgan State	15	17	11	0
Michigan State	25	25	25	3

9/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

Sept. 3, 2016

Box Score

SPARTAN SYNOPSIS
Michigan State opened its Auto-Owners Invitational with a 3-0 sweep of Morgan State on Saturday morning at Jenison Field House. The Spartans improve to 4-0 on the season and will face Central Michigan in the second match of the day at 6:30 pm. Chloe Reinig (nine kills) and Alyssa Garvelink (eight) paced the MSU offense.

SET ONE: Morgan State stayed within a point of the Spartans early until MSU went up 8-6 - reeling off the next six points to force their visitors into a timeout at 14-6. The foot never came off the gas for MSU from that point, as Autumn Bailey led the way with five kills, and Chloe Reinig and Alyssa Garvelink each had three. MSU hit .333 for the frame, holding the visiting Bears to just .130, which would eventually be their match high.

SET TWO: The scrappy Bears rallied to tie the score at 11-11, but Rachel Minarick stepped in to serve and for the second straight set ripped off five straight points to pull ahead 16-11. MSU pulled out to 21-13 on a Tompkins kill, as Abby Monson had an impressive serving run., and closed it out to take a 2-0 match lead despite hitting just .258 (14-6-31) in the frame.

SET THREE: Morgan State held leads of 4-2 and 6-5, and with the match tied 8-8, MSU got the serve back on an error, and then Holly Toliver stepped to the line - delivering four straight points, book-ended with aces, to give MSU a 13-8 lead. After a Morgan State timeout, they finally got a sideout to end the serving run of Toliver, but MSU finished off the match with consecutive aces from Brooke Kranda - her first career three-ace game - to put the match away 25-11.

TOP PERFORMERS

Chloe Reinig led all players with nine kills and hit her season-best .467, (9-2-15). Her nine kills gave her 1,003 in her career, the 21st player to surpass the 1,000 kills mark.

Alyssa Garvelink posted eight kills and hit a match-best .600 (8-2-10). She also had a pair of blocks.

Autumn Bailey finished with seven kills (.250), while Holly Toliver had two kills, eight digs, two aces, and a block.

STATS AND STORYLINES

MSU dished out 11 service aces, a season high. That balanced out the team's 11 service errors, which was also the most so far this season. The team is averaging 2.38 aces per set through four matches.
The Spartans had a season-low three team blocks.
The Spartans held Morgan State to a 0.82 hitting percentage, the second straight opponent held under 10% hitting. Marist hit just 0.80 last Saturday in the SDSU Tournament finale.
Brooke Kranda served up three aces in addition to adding five kills (5-1-8, .500) and adding a block.
Rachel Minarick had 20 assists in two sets, adding five digs.
MSU played 13 players in the match.