Boilers Rally for 3-1 Win Over Spartans

SPARTAN SYNOPSIS

Michigan State dropped a tough four-set loss to No. 14 Purdue (25-15, 12-25, 19-25, 17-25) on Saturday at Jenison Field House. MSU falls to 14-5 and 2-4 in Big Ten. Purdue rebounded from a Friday loss to improve to 14-3 overall and 3-3 in Conference action.

MSU out-blocked their visitors by an 11-9 margin, but had 39 kills to 49 for the Boilermakers, who hit .199 on the night. MSU was hindered by 26 hitting errors and eight more from the service line.

Grace Cleveland had 15 kills and six blocks, hitting .367 for the visiting Boilermakers. Caitlyn Newton finished with 12 terminations, while Sheridan Atkinson added nine.

Alyssa Chronowski, led the Spartans with her first career double-double (12 kills, 10 digs) and added four blocks. Maddie Haggerty had 10 kills and eight digs, and Becka Poljan led the Spartans with five blocks.

MSU was celebrating its Alumni Weekend, welcoming back not only members of the 2017 team who were honored earlier in the day at the football game but also more than 30 other former players who once wore Green & White.

MSU heads out on the road next weekend, playing Friday night at Maryland before a Sunday matinee at Ohio State.



TOP PERFORMERS
• Alyssa Chronowski had kills 12 kills and 10 digs for her first career double-double.
• Maddie Haggerty posted 10 kills and eight digs
• Rebecka Poljan led MSU with five blocks and posted five kills and two digs.

   STATS AND STORYLINES
• Michigan State honored All-Americans Holly Toliver and Autumn Bailey prior to the contest with their banners unfurled in the Jenison Field House rafters.
• MSU's wrapped its four-game homestand with a 2-2 record.
• The Spartans had 11 blocks in the match, their 17^th time in 19 matches they have had eight or more.

GAME REPLAY

•   SET ONE: MSU came out aggressive and quickly took a lead that grew from five to seven to nine points at 20-11, aided by an .034 hitting percentage by the visitors. Purdue kept trying to get back into it, but was hampered by its eight errors against just eight kills in the frame. Leading 22-15, the Boilermakers committed three straight errors to hand the Spartans the opening set, 25-15. MSU had 13 kills and just four errors, hitting .273; Shklyar had 13 assists and three digs, while Chronowski led the Spartans with four kills.

•   SET TWO:   The Spartans remained aggressive in the early part of the second set, but had five errors and just four kills as the Boilermaker lead increased to seven at 14-7. Purdue was hitting 7-0-15 (.467) to build its lead. Trailing 17-10, the Spartans called time out, and got a service ace (aided by the net cord), but the Boilermakers were rolling and closed out the set with a 25-12 victory. Caitlyn Newton led the offensive attack with five of the 12 Purdue kills, which came on 24 swings with just one error (.458). MSU was plagued by its early errors and hit just .029 (8-7-34). Chronowski had four kills for the second straight set.

•   SET THREE:    Purdue tried to race away in the third set by building a 7-1 edge, but MSU fought back into it and cut it to 8-5. MSU committed errors on two of the next three points to help Purdue build it out to 11-5, and with a 12-6 deficit, MSU got a kill from Haggerty and a solo stuff from Chronowski followed by a Purdue error to trim it back to three (12-9). Another Chronowski kill and a block by the sophomore and Gros kept MSU within striking distance. The Boilers, who had squandered the early six-point edge, got it back out to seven, and kept the Spartans at bay. MSU was hampered by nine errors in the frame, despite six blocks (three from Gros). MSU hit -.056, putting down just seven kills against those nine errors; the Boilers also had nine errors but got seven kills from Grace Cleveland and 12 total.

•   SET FOUR:    MSU came out looking like the team in the first set and built an early 8-5 lead, and pushed it to four at 12-8. The Boilermakers put together a 4-0 run that trimmed tied the match at 12-12. The teams traded points to 16-16, then Purdue went on a 7-1 run that included a pair of kills by Newton. Chronowski got the sideout, but a service error gave the Boilers a 20-17 lead. Purdue continued to roll, compiling a total of 16 kills in the set and hitting .324 in the frame (16-4-37), while MSU had 11 kills and six errors. The visitors closed it out to take the fourth 25-17 and battle back for a 3-1 win. Haggerty had five of her 10 kills in the final set, while Chronowski and Poljan each had two blocks. Newton had fourt kills for the Boilermakers, including the final two to seal the victory.

Players Mentioned

Autumn Bailey

Alyssa Chronowski

Maddie Haggerty

Rebecka Poljan

Holly Toliver

Players Mentioned

Autumn Bailey

Alyssa Chronowski

Maddie Haggerty

Rebecka Poljan

Holly Toliver

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Players Mentioned

Autumn Bailey

Alyssa Chronowski

Maddie Haggerty

Rebecka Poljan

Holly Toliver