Friday, October 18
East Lansing, Mich.
7 pm
Michigan State University
13-4, 4-3Big Ten
3
vs
0
Rutgers
6-12,0-7Big Ten
1
2
3
F
Rutgers
21
18
11
0
Michigan State
25
25
25
3
Team Stats
RU
MSU
Kills
23
36
Errors
24
14
Attempts
86
89
Hitting %
-.012
.247
Points
34.0
53.0
Assists
22
35
Aces
5
6
Blocks
6.0
11.0
Game Leaders
Kills
11
Aces
1
Blocks
0
Kills
7
Aces
0
Blocks
4
Kills
4
Aces
0
Blocks
6
Players Mentioned
OH
/ Volleyball
DS/L
/ Volleyball
MB
/ VolleyballOH
/ VolleyballOH
/ Volleyball
Jamye Cox was honored pre-game for passing the 1,000 career dig mark
MSU Opens Homestand With Rutgers Sweep
10/18/2019 9:31:00 PM | Volleyball
East Lansing, Mich. -- Michigan State returned home to Jenison Field House after most of the last four weeks on the road and earned a 3-0 sweep of visiting Rutgers (25-21, 25-18, 25-11). It is MSU's third sweep of the Big Ten season and helped the home team improve to 13-4 overall and 4-3 in Big Ten play; Rutgers falls to 6-12, 0-7 B1G.
The visitors fought back into each of the first two sets, but MSU held their guests to a negative hitting percentage for the match (23-24-86, -.012). MSU hit .247 and out-blocked Rutgers 11-6, compiling 38 digs to just 31 for the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers did manage an edge in service aces, 6-5.
The Spartans held commanding leads in each of the first two sets, but Rutgers was strong at the service line early and also had six blocks (compared to just five for MSU) in those first two frames. MSU asserted itself in the third to hit .348 and put up six blocks, cruising to a 25-11 win in the final frame to ensure the sweep.
Meredith Norris led MU with 11 kills and hit .471, just missing a double-double with nine digs. Naya Gros and Lauren Swartz each had six blocks and four kills (Gros on just seven swings), while Alyssa Chronowski had seven kills and four blocks (one solo).
For Rutgers, Jasmine Stackhouse recorded a team-best six kills and added a pair of blocks. Merle Wendt had four blocks and added two kills, and Inna Balyko had 10 assists.
Nebraska held the match edge in kills, blocks, and hitting percentage,
The Spartans are back home again on Sunday, hosting No. 8 Penn State in a match that will air live on ESPN.
PLAYER HIGHS
- Meredith Norris just missed a double-double with 11 kills and nine digs.
- Naya Gros and Lauren Swartz each had six blocks and four kills.
- Samantha McLean had five digs, two assists, and three service aces.
STATS & STORYLINES
- MSU came up with its fourth match this season holding an opponent with a hitting percentage below .100, and held an opponent to negative hitting percentage (-.012) for the first time in 2019.
- Jamye Cox had 11 digs to lead all players, the 15th time in 17 matches she has posted double-digit digs. Cox was honored in a pre-game ceremony for her 1,000th career dig, which she had on Oct. 5 at Maryland. She needs just 76 digs to climb into the all-time top 10 at MSU, which is currently held by Judy Doles (1.121).
- Norris missed a double-double by one dig, the fifth time this season that she has had double-digit kills and nine digs in a match. She has posted two of MSU's five double-doubles this season.
- Swartz's six blocks tied her career best, set earlier this season at Maryland (Oct. 6).
- McLean's three service aces is her season best and tied her career best – which she previously set in the Sept. 29, 2018 meeting with Rutgers.
- Emma Monks had all three kills and all three blocks in the third set, establishing a new career best in blocks (3). She saw her first Big Ten action last week at Nebraska.
- Gros led the Spartans in blocking for the third match in a row and for the ninth time this season overall.
SET SYNOPSIS
- SET ONE: Samantha McLean started off the match with a service ace, and kicked off an 8-1 run to start the frame for the home team. MSU was hitting better than .400 as it built its lead to eight after a Cox ace and up to 10 at 17-7 after Poljan put together a personal run of two kills and a block. The Scarlet Knight battled back to cut it to four at 18-14 with a pair of Spartan errors. MSU won the race to 20 with a six-point edge, but a 4-0 run from a Caitlin Kikta service run that featured three straight aces from the freshman brought Rutgers within two, 20-18. MSU called a time out and got consecutive kills from Norris to push the Spartan lead back to four. The teams traded points to get to 24-20 on a Chronowski kill, and the Spartans finished it off 25-21 as a hitting error closed it out. Rutgers was able to get back in it with four aces and a 3-1 blocking advantage despite the Spartans holding them to a .040 hitting percentage. The Spartans hit .250 and got four kills from Norris and three each from Chronowski and Swartz.
- SET TWO: Rutgers was even with the Spartans through 4-4, but MSU used a run that featured a block and a kill from Naya Gros to pull ahead 7-4, and Rutgers used its first time out. Gros and Chronowski picked up their second blocks of the night out of the break, which continued the MSU scoring run that eventually reach eight straight points, giving MU a 12-4 edge. Rutgers stayed with it and used a 10-2 run to tie things up at 14-14, but MSU came right back with a 3-0 run on back-to-back McLean aces that made it 17-14, and RU called time out. MSU continued the run out of the break, pulling ahead by five, 21-16. A block by Gros and Swartz and consecutive Rutgers errors got MSU to set point at 24-17, and after the Scarlet Knights tooled the block to stave off set point, a Cieslik service sailed long and MSU took a 2-0 match lead. MSU hit just 167 in the second set thanks in part to three blocks by the visitors; Rutgers had 10 kills against 10 errors, however, to hit .000 and lower their match percentage to .018. Norris had four kills and four digs for the Spartans in the set, while Gros had four blocks and a pair of kills.
- SET THREE: Rutgers took a brief 4-2 lead, with Norris erased with back-to-back kills to get to her 10th of the match. Tied at 7's, Chronowski fueled a 3-0 MSU run with a kill and a solo block to pull ahead 10-7, and MSU made it 12-7 when Swartz and Emma Monks posted back-to-back stuffs. Monks compiled three kills in a 5-0 Spartan run to help MSU pull out to an 18-8 edge, as Rutgers called its second time out to regroup. In all, MSU used seven- and eight-point runs to build significant leads, pulling ahead 21-8 with the latter. The teams traded points to get to 24-11 as Rutgers committed service errors on three consecutive attempts, and MSU closed it out with a block by Gros and Swartz for a 25-11 final score in the third set. Monks and Norris led the Spartans with three kills each in the frame, while Monks also shared the set lead in blocks with Gros, (3) MSU hit .348 (11-3-23) and held Rutgers to -.069 (7-9-29).
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