Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
15-5, 8-3B1G
Nebraska
17-4, 10-1B1G
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nebraska | 25 | 19 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| Michigan State | 16 | 25 | 17 | 14 | 1 |
No. 7 Huskers Trip Spartans, 3-1
10/27/2017 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Box Score | PDF Box: Nebraska 3, MSU 1
WATCH: Highlights vs. No. 7 Nebraska
SPARTAN SYNOPSIS
No. 10 Michigan State suffered a second loss to No. 7 Nebraska this season, falling 3-1 (16-25, 25-19, 17-25, 14-25) to the Huskers on Friday night at Jenison Field House. The Spartans are now 8-3 in Conference play and 15-5 overall, while the Huskers improve to 17-4 and remain in a tie for first place in the Big Ten standings with a 10-1 mark.
MSU was plagued by 12 service errors and some tough serving from the Huskers, who finished with eight aces on the night. The visitors also held a 10-7 edge in blocks and hit .262, while the Spartans hit just 144 (right below the Husker's league-best .162 allowed to opponents this season). MSU rallied to tie the match at 1-1 after falling by nine points in the opening frame, but the Huskers got back on track during the set break and took a 25-17 win in the third and rolled to a 25-14 win in the fourth set.
MSU struggled to establish or maintain much rhythm at any point of the match, as the visitors accomplished the task of keeping MSU out of system. Mikaela Foecke led the Huskers with 14 kills, hitting .394; freshman Jazz Sweet had 11 kills and added four digs and a pair of blocks.
For MSU, Autumn Bailey and Brooke Kranda each had nine kills, while Alyssa Garvelink had eight kills and five blocks.
Michigan State continues a three-game homestand on Saturday, hosting Iowa in a 6:30 start at Jenison Field House.
QUOTABLE
"Nebraska was on point with their strengths tonight - they served well and were aggressive from start to finish. We simply made too many errors to give ourselves a chance - 12 service errors and 23 hitting errors are not a recipe to be successful any night in the Big Ten. It's disappointing to start off a homestand this way, but we have an opportunity to get things back on track to try to redeem ourselves tomorrow when we host Iowa.."
- Head Coach Cathy George
TOP PERFORMERS
- Alyssa Garvleink had eight kills and five blocks,
- Rachel Minarick had 34 assists, three kills, and seven digs
- Autumn Bailey posted nine kills and eight digs, adding a pair of aces.
- Holly Toliver hit a team-best .208 and had eight kills, an ace, seven digs, and three blocks.
STATS AND STORYLINES
- MSU suffered its first home loss of the season after a 7-0 start at Jenison Field House. MSU has five home games remaining in the regular season.
- Nebraska sweeps the season series from MSU after a 3-1 win in Lincoln on Oct. 4
- Alyssa Garvelink had her 500th career block early in the first set. She is fifth all-time in that category and is the 46th member of the B1G 500 career blocks club.
- MSU had six service aces on the night, including three from libero Jamye Cox, who added a match-best 17 digs.
GAME REPLAY
- SET ONE: A 5-0 Nebraska run turned a 4-2 MSU lead into a 7-4 advantage for the visitors, and despite the Spartans twice trimming it to a single point, MSU called time out trailing 13-10 after four hitting errors had the Spartans hitting just.087 (6-4-23). Both teams were disruptive at the net, and freshman Jamye Cox had five digs and a pair of aces to that point of the set. Out of the break, the visitors continued their aggressive play and put together a 7-2 run to push out to a 20-13 advantage, forcing the Spartans to use their second time out. The Husker service run by Hayley Desnberger continued after the break, and the visitors took a 23-14 lead. Kelly Hunter dumped over the net to make it 24-14, and after a Tompkins termination fought off set point, a service error gave Nebraska the first set, 25-16. Nebraska finished the frame on a 12-6 run after taking a 13-10 lead., and hit .379 (14-3-29). The Spartans were plagued by six errors and just 10 kills, hitting .118 and led by Autumn Bailey's three kills and a block. Alyssa Garvelink had two kills and two blocks in the set, the first stuff her 500th career block at MSU.
- SET TWO: MSU took a 4-2 lead again in the second, and Nebraska again used a 6-0 run to make it a 8-5 Spartan deficit. The visitors were hitting just .214 to that part of the frame, but the Spartans were out of sorts and struggling in serve-receive, but out of the break the Spartans came back with consecutive kills by Kranda and Garvelink, followed by the pair teaming up on a block to tie the game at 8-8. Nebraska went up 12-9, and the Spartans opened up a 7-2 run - MSU trimmed it down to a single point on a swing and block by Toliver., and then Autumn Bailey had the next two MSU kills to tie the game at 14-14, and then delivered an ace that kissed the back line and made it a 15-14 MSU advantage. Nebraska called its first time out, but that didn't halt the MSU momentum as Megan Tompkins and Brooke Kranda had kills out of the break to give MSU its largest lead at 18-15. Minarick lost a joust at the net to allow Nebraska the sideout, but the Spartans had seemingly gotten their sea legs The Spartans pushed their lead to five on a big block by Garvelink and Toliver, and Nebraska called their second time out to try to regroup. After an MSU service error, Foecke stepped to the service line with an eye on getting her team back into the set, but she also served long. Cox served up her third ace of the match to get MSU to set point, and Tompkins put a spinning ball over the net to seal it for MSU, 25-19. MSU recovered to hit .306 in the second set (15-4-36), and held the Huskers to just eight kills and hitting .086. Kranda had four kills and four digs in the set, while Garvelink and Toliver each had three kills and two blocks. MSU out-blocked their visitors 3-1 in the set.
- SET THREE: MSU took early leads of 3-0 and 5-2, and a Holly Toliver service run helped MSU open up a 9-5 lead. A Husker ace and an MSU error allowed the Huskers to rally to tie it at 9, but an impressive putback by Rachel Minarick on an overpass stopped the Nebraska run. The visitors used a 8-2 run to take an 13-11 lead, and went up 15-12 before a time out was called on the floor. Nebraska carried the momentum through the break, scoring five straight on Kelly Hunter's service run and forcing a Spartan time out at 20-12. The Spartans had one less error (6) than kills (7) to that point of the set, with Nebraska putting up three blocks and adding 10 kills, hitting .269. The Spartans climbed within six out of their second time out, thanks to a trio of errors from the Huskers that forced John Cook to call his time out as MSU made it 21-15. Nebraska closed it out by a 25-17 margin, hitting .250 in the frame, led by Foecke with four kills; MSU got four from Toliver, but hit just .054 (9-7-37).
- SET FOUR: The teams were once again tight through the early points, and MSU called time out when the Huskers went up 8-6. Nebraska was energized by the time out and used a 4-2 run to go up four (12-8), and kept adding to the lead as MSU struggled to find any consistency. The Huskers hit .367 in the set (15-4-30) in taking an 11-point win in the fourth set, MSU's largest deficit in a set this season. MSU had just nine kills againt six errors, hitting .094 in the frame for a game total of .144. Sweet had five of her 11 kills in the fourth, while Bailey was MSU's leader with four kills and a dig.
