Spartans Rally For Comeback Over Northwestern

East Lansing, Mich. -- Michigan State rallied from match deficits of 0-1 and 1-2 to post a five-set victory over Northwestern on Saturday at Jenison Field House.

MSU improved to 14-10 overall and 5-9 in Big Ten play, snapping a six-match skid. The win also avenged a Northwestern win last Friday in Evanston, as the team split the season series.

The Spartans improved to 2-2 in five-set matches this season, defeating Iowa and Northwestern after five-set losses to No. 21 Tennessee and Maryland. MSU also improved to 7-4 at Jenison Field House, with four home matches remaining over the final three weeks of Conference action.

Michigan State had season bests in blocks (17) and service aces (10), accounting for more than a set's worth of points in addition to putting down 54 kills and hitting .174. Northwestern hit .321 in the first set and .226 in the third (the two sets the Wildcats won), but were .000, -.182, and -.083 in the three sets won by MSU.

Freshman Biamba Kabengele and redshirt junior Lauren Swartz led MSU with 10 kills each. Swartz hit.364 an added four blocks and an assist; Kabengele had three blocks and five digs. Freshman Emma Monks had six kills and seven blocks, adding two aces. Naya Gros hit a match-best.412 as she delivered nine kills seven blocks, and three digs.

Nia Robinson had 12 kills and a pair of blocks to lead the Wildcats (10-16, 1-13 B1G), while freshman Temi Thomas-Ailara had 11 terminations after missing the first meeting of the teams a week ago.

Michigan State hosts Nebraska next Wednesday (Nov. 13) at 7 pm before completing the week of action at Wisconsin next Saturday.

PLAYER HIGHS

Lauren Swartz posted 10 kills and four blocks, hitting .364.
Naya Gros had nine kills, seven blocks, and hit a match-best .412.
Meredith Norris had nine kills and added nine digs and tied her career best with five blocks.
Biamba Kabengele had 10 kills, five digs, and three blocks.

STATS & STORYLINES

MSU served up a season-high 10 aces in the match, led by four for Jamye Cox and three for Audrey Alford. Cox also had 12 digs, while Alford had 18 assists.
The Spartans posted 17 blocks, bettering the season best of 16 against Duke in the season opener and again in a five-set win at Iowa (Oct. 13).
MSU held NU to a .079 hitting percentage, the fifth time this season an opponent hit .099 or lower.
Freshman Emma Monks had career highs in kills (6), attempts (13), aces (2), and blocks (7).
Sophomore setter Elena Shklyar had a season-best 31 assists, adding four digs.
Meredith Norris had her ninth match with nine or more digs. She was also a perfect 36-for-36 on serve receive.
Molly Johnson posted six kills, four digs, and three blocks.
Biamba Kabengele had three kills and two of her three blocks in the fifth set. Her three blocks tied her season best for the second straight game.

SET SYNOPSIS

SET ONE: MSU took the opening point on a block by Kabengele and Poljan, but the Wildcats reeled off the next five points to take a 5-1 lead before a shot by Norris down the line halted the run. The Spartans called a time out trailing 7-2, and responded out of the break with a run that tied things up at 8-8. After an NU time out, Audrey Alford served up a second consecutive aces that gave MSU the lead, MSU went up 12-10 on kills by Chronowski and Swartz and a block by Gros and Norris, but the Wildcats came back with seven of the next eight points to go up 17-13, two of those points coming from unforced MSU errors. The Spartans scored three straight points out of the break to force NU to call their second time out, with MSU within a point at 18-17. After the hiatus, the road team scored four of the next five points to take a 23-18 lead, and after a kill by Grbac NU got to set point. Norris sent a shot down the line to fend it off, but Thomas-Ailara went off the block to seal the opening-set win. NU hit a red-hot .321 (13-4-28) with 13 digs, while MSU committed 10 hitting errors (no NU blocks) and had 11 kills. MSU had two blocks to NU's none. Nia Robinson had four kills for the Wildcats, while Norris had three and a block for MSU.

SET TWO: The Spartans raced out to a 6-1 edge in the second set, generated by two kills, a block, and a pair of Jamye Cox service aces. Lauren Swartz was the hot hand in helping MSU take a 10-4 lead, putting down a pair of kills and adding a block. The Spartans who are at their best when distributing their offense, improved their lead to 13-6 on a kill and a block by Meredith Norris. MSU then scored seven of the next eight to win the race to 20, and then got a kill from Kabengele that made it 21-7. While the Wildcats scored three of the final five points, MSU held strong and closed it out 25-11, hitting .286 (9-3-21) and tacked on three blocks and three service aces as they won big. The Spartans distributed their offense once again, with two kills for Norris, Kabengele, and Swartz, with Emma Monks posting a pair of blocks and adding an assist. Nia Robinson had three of her team's seven kills.

SET THREE: It was Northwestern's turn in set three to take a big lead, taking a 6-0 lead on two blocks, two MSU errors, and a kill and an ace by Alana Walker. MSU called time out and got kills from Swartz and Gros out of the break, but NU took those points right back to make it 8-2. MSU scored three straight – two Swartz kills around an NU error – that made it 8-5, and MSU whittled the lead down to two at 9-7 on a kill by Monks and an ace by Alford, her third of the game. NU scored three of the next four – two kills and a block – to make it another four-point edge, and a Spartan hitting error forced the Spartans into their second time out of the set, trailing 13-8. NU came out of the break with a block that made the MSU deficit six at 14-8, but the Spartans kept chipping away with an ace by Monks and kills by Gros and Johnson that made it a three-point hole (17-14), and NU called a time out. NU scored two of the first three points out of the break, but two kills by Monks and a solo block by Norris made it a two-point game at 19-17, and Northwestern called its second time out to try to stop the momentum that MSU appeared to be building. Monks put down a little roll shot that made it a one-point edge, but Thomas-Ailara kill followed by an MSU error pushed it back out to three. (21-19). MSU got within a point on a block by Gros and Swartz, and then tied it up on a Swartz kill, 23-23. The Wildcats got kills from Desiree Becker and Robinson to take a 2-1 match lead. NU hit .226 in the frame (11-4-31) and added five blocks to close that margin, while the Spartans hit .143 (15-10-35) in great part due to the five NU blocks. The Spartans got four kills each from Monks and Swartz, with the latter adding a pair of blocks. Desiree Becker had four of NU's kills and added three blocks (one solo).

SET FOUR: For the first time, neither team built a particularly large lead in the early part of the fourth. With the set tied 3-3, MSU handed the Wildcats a pair of errors for a 5-3 lead, but got it back on a kill by Molly Johnson and a block by Norris and Monks. With things tied up at 6-6, MSU used a 5-2 run fueled by three Norris kills to take an 11-8 lead, and NU called time out. MSU scored three of the first four points out of the break – kills by Gros and Kabengele sandwiched around Cox's fourth ace of the math – to go up 14-10. An NU error followed by a Monks solo block triggered the second time out of the frame. The Spartan run continued after the break, as NU committed three errors around a Kabengele kill to allow MSU to win the race to 20 with a 10-point edge. A solo block by Ella Grbac stopped a 6-0 MSU run, but Kabengele (kill) and Monks (block) were sure to keep the visitors from starting a run of their own. With a 23-13 lead, the Spartans got a block from Gros and Johnson to get to set point, and sent it to a fifth when Gros put up a solo stuff on Robinson. MSU had five blocks and hit .381 in the set, led by four kills from Kabengele and three blocks (one solo) from Monks.

SET FIVE: A 4-1 lead generated by kills from Kabengele, Gros, and Swartz led to an NU time out, and the freshman Kabengle delivered a solo block and kill off the block to make it 6-1, forcing the Wildcats to take a second time out. MSU raced out to an 8-1 lead at the crossover as Kabengele put down her third kill of the set. Northwestern won a wild rally to trim it back down to 9-3, but the Spartans kept coming with big blocks to extend its blocking margin out to 16-7 and the scoreboard to 12-4. NU put together a 3-0 run with a Sarah Johnson service ace sandwiched between two MSU hitting errors, and the Spartans called time out to regroup. A line shot sailed wide for MSU to allow the visitors back within four, but MSU got to match point on a block by Gros; a pair of points for the Wildcats fended it off, but the Spartans sealed it with a kill by Gros to take the set 15-10 and the match 3-2. Kabengele had three kills on six swings (no errors) and two blocks, whil egors had two kills and two blocks. MSU had eight kills and four blocks in the fifth alone, hitting .174; NU hit -.083 (3-5-24).

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Team Stats

Biamba Kabengele

Lauren Swartz

Meredith Norris

Naya Gros

Players Mentioned

Audrey Alford

Jamye Cox

Naya Gros

Molly Johnson

Biamba Kabengele

Emma Monks

Meredith Norris

Elena Shklyar

Lauren Swartz

Players Mentioned

Audrey Alford

Jamye Cox

Naya Gros

Molly Johnson

Biamba Kabengele

Emma Monks

Meredith Norris

Elena Shklyar

Lauren Swartz

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Team Stats

Game Leaders

Biamba Kabengele

Lauren Swartz

Meredith Norris

Naya Gros

Players Mentioned

Audrey Alford

Jamye Cox

Naya Gros

Molly Johnson

Biamba Kabengele

Emma Monks

Meredith Norris

Elena Shklyar

Lauren Swartz