Spartans Stretched To Five In Win Over Rutgers 3-2

SPARTAN SYNOPSIS

Michigan State took an early lead and then had to fend off a spirited Rutgers team to claim a 3-2 victory (28-26, 25-14, 23-25, 16-25, 15-12) on the road on Wednesday night. MSU improves to 17-13, 5-12 Big Ten and Rutgers falls to 6-24, 0-17.

After a tight opening set that went in favor of the Spartans in extra points, the Green and White rode a .636 second-set hitting percentage to a 25-14 victory to in the second to take a 2-0 match lead. In the third, Rutgers led by as many as six points and got to set point at 24-19, but MSU fended off four set points before falling, 23-25 as the home team forced a fourth set. The fourth belonged solely to the Scarlet Knights, who posted six blocks and hit .250 to down MSU 25-16. Rutgers took an early 4-1 lead in the fifth but MSU stormed back on the play of its middles, as Naya Gros and Becka Poljan had six of MSU's seven kills and all three blocks.

Maddie Haggerty had a double-double with 13 kills and 12 digs; Gros finished with 12 kills hitting .625 (12-2-16) and leading the Spartans with six blocks. Alyssa Chronowski added 11 kills.

For Rutgers, Tali Marmen had 12 kills and hit .500, adding five digs. Jasmine Stackhouse opened the match with seven first-set blocks en route to 12 in the match (four solo) and added eight kills. Setter Inna Balyko had 41 assists, eight blocks, and five kills.

Michigan State turns its attention to the annual Jam Jenison match vs. Michigan on Saturday. The match begins at 6:30 pm.

QUOTABLE
"We let the third set get away, with too much of a deficit to overcome for our late surge. They controlled the fourth the way we did in the second, so I was glad to see us be aggressive in the fifth to close it out. We are going to have to clean up the errors we made tonight before facing Michigan this weekend."

Head Coach Cathy George

TOP PERFORMERS
• Naya Gros hit .625, posting 12 kills and adding a team-best six blocks.
• Maddie Haggerty posted a fifth straight double-double, posting 13 and 12.
• Alyssa Chronowski had 11 kills and three digs

STATS AND STORYLINES
• Maddie Haggerty posted a fifth consecutive double-double
• MSU is now 3-1 in five-set matches this season.
• The Spartans served up nine service aces, three from the hand of Jamye Cox, who added nine digs and four assists.


GAME REPLAY

•   SET ONE: Rutgers struck with two quick points out of the gate, but MSU went on a 7-2 run to pull ahead 7-4. The home team fought back within a point twice (7-6, 9-8), then used a 3-0 run to go up 11-10 on a kill and a block by Jasmine Stackhouse, and a service ace by Beka Kojadinovic. The teams stayed within a point of one another as they battled toward 20, trading points until MSU went on a 3-0 run to turn a 15-14 deficit into a 17-15 lead, on three straight kills from Gros, Haggerty, and Swartz. RU called time out to regroup, but MSU went on a 3-1 run out of the break to pull ahead by four, 20-16. With MSU leading 22-19, Rutgers called a time out to try to stop the momentum, but the Spartans were benefiting from a balanced offense, with four players posting three kills and a fifth with two, hitting 15-6-29 (.319). Rutgers fought back with three straight points – two on blocks by Stackhouse – to tie the set 22-22. Rutgers got to set point A McLetchie kill followed by a block by Stackhouse gets Rutgers to set point, but MSU answers with a kill by Chronowski. 24-24. The Spartans got three of the final four points, including a pair of blocks by Gros and Swartz, to take the set by a 28-26 edge. Chronowski had five kills to lead the Spartans, while Haggerty had four kills and nine digs. For RU, Stackhouse had seven blocks in the frame and Sahbria McLetchie had five terminations.

•   SET TWO:   MSU raced out to a 9-3 lead in the set thanks to four kills on the first six swings and a three service aces, two from Maggie Midgette.and one from Haggerty. Rutgers called its first time out of the set with MSU holding a 13-7 lead, but it didn't slow down the MSU offense. Holding on to the five-point edge at 17-12, MSU got a thundering kill out of the back row followed by an from Chronowski to push MSU's lead to seven, its largest of the night, and Swartz went back-to-back to make it 22-13. MSU closed it out 25-14, hitting .636 (15-1-22) and posting five aces in the frame. Rutgers recovered from a .070 hitting percentage in the first frame to hit .263 in the second, with Stackhouse picking up three of the Scarlet Knights' nine kills. Haggerty led MSU with five kills, and Swartz had four.

•   SET THREE:    A 5-2 lead for MSU opened the third frame, but a 5-0 run turned it into a 7-5 Spartan deficit. MSU pulled within one several times, but Rutgers stayed aggressive, hitting .353 (10-4-17). A touch call that was challenged by the Spartans but the call on the floor was upheld, and consecutive blocks by Inna Balyko and Merle Weidt pushed out the lead to 20-15, and MSU called time out. The home team scored the first point out of the time out, but a 4-0 MSU run – two kills from Chronowski and an ace from Midgette – brought the Spartans back within two, 21-19. A kill by Tali Marmen and two aces from Inna Balyko got the home team to set point, but MSU fended it off four times to bring MSU within one at 24-23. Weidt 's next offering kissed the sideline to seal the set victory for Rutgers and force a fourth set. The Scarlet Knights hit .375 (13-4-24), led by Weidt who had three kills and three blocks. Chronowski led MSU with three kills, while Molly Johsnon picked up two to go with two blocks as MSU hit .222 (11-5-27)

•   SET FOUR:    The fourth started out as a match of runs between the teams – MSU held a 9-5 lead before the home team used a 8-1 run to take its largest lead at 16-10, and MSU called a time out to try to regroup. The home team built that lead on a .333 hitting percentage (8-2-18), an ace and a pair of blocks. The Scarlet Knights kept coming at MSU with big swings, and got even bigger on the block as they stuffed three straight MSU attempts to pull ahead 19-13. Two more kills pushed the Rutgers lead to seven at 21-14, as everything the Scarlet Knights touched seemed to find the floor on the MSU side. Rutgers closed out the frame 25-16, on the strength of hitting .250 (11-4-28) and siding out at 75%, and adding six blocks to push their match total to 18. MSU hit -.111, with eight kills against eight errors; Haggerty led MSU in the frame with three.

•   SET FIVE:    MSU opened the scoring with a Poljan kill, but then the home team went off on a 4-0 run to go up 4-1. The Spartans fought back into it to tie things at 5-5, then took their first lead since the third set on a Johnson kill. Poljan continued her service run with an ace that gave MSU a 7-5 lead, and Rutgers called time out. Gros put down her ninth kill of the night to make it an 8-5 Spartan lead at the crossover. RU rallied for three straight to tie things at 8-8, but the Spartans got the sideout on a ball that sailed wide. Rutgers challenged the out-of-bounds call to try to stop MSU from gathering any momentum, and got the second straight call overturned to make it 9-8 in favor of the home team. The Spartans fought back with three of the next four points to take a 11-10 lead, but the Scarlet Knights kept countering to tie the set back up. MSU got a big termination from Gros and a shot to sail long out of bounds by McLetchie to pull ahead 13-11. Rutgers called time out, and got a huge solo stuff from Chronowski to get to match point. Rutgers fended off set point with a Marmen kill, but then went back to her a second time and she tipped it out of bounds to give the match to the Spartans. Naya Gros had four kills and two blocks in the final frame, and Poljan had two kills and a block. Marmen had five kills for Rutgers. MSU hit .375 (7-1-16) in the fifth set and did not allow Rutgers a block.

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Team Stats

Maddie Haggerty

Naya Gros

Alyssa Chronowski

Molly Johnson

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Chronowski

Jamye Cox

Naya Gros

Maddie Haggerty

Maggie Midgette

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Chronowski

Jamye Cox

Naya Gros

Maddie Haggerty

Maggie Midgette

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Next Event

Team Stats

Game Leaders

Maddie Haggerty

Naya Gros

Alyssa Chronowski

Molly Johnson

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Chronowski

Jamye Cox

Naya Gros

Maddie Haggerty

Maggie Midgette