Sunday, November 21
1 pm
Michigan State University
11-16,4-14Big Ten
0
vs
3
Michigan
16-11,9-9Big Ten
1
2
3
F
Michigan
25
25
25
3
Michigan St.
23
20
15
0
Spartans Battle in Loss to Michigan at a Sold-Out Jenison
11/21/2021 3:30:00 PM | Volleyball
GAME CAPSULE
Michigan State went toe-to-toe with archrival Michigan for most of the match, but the Wolverines reeled off 10 straight points to close out a 3-0 sweep of the Spartans in the annual Jam Jenison event on Sunday (23-25, 20-25, 14-25).
The Spartans welcomed 5,006 fans to Jenison Field House for the Sunday matinee, and proceeded to fight point-for-point with their archrivals until Michigan pulled away in the final points of each of the first two sets. In the third, MSU battled back to within a point of UM at 15-14 after trailing by three, but then saw their archrivals score 10 straight points to close out the third set and take the match by a 3-0 score.
Michigan State (11-16, 4-14 B1G) dropped its third straight match, falling to No. 5 Wisconsin on the road on Friday, 3-1.
Sarah Franklin overcame a slow start to put down eight of her 14 kills in the final set, and she added four digs, three blocks, and a pair of assists. Biamba Kabengele had nine kills and two blocks with a pair of aces, and Emma Monks led MSU with six blocks, hit .444 and had five kills.
Paige Jones led all scorers with 16 kills, and Jess Mruzik had 13 kills and 15 digs for the visiting Wolverines (16-11, 9-9 B1G)
The Spartans host Illinois and Northwestern next weekend to close out the regular season.
PLAYER HIGHS
STATS AND STORYLINES
SET SYNOPSIS
Michigan State went toe-to-toe with archrival Michigan for most of the match, but the Wolverines reeled off 10 straight points to close out a 3-0 sweep of the Spartans in the annual Jam Jenison event on Sunday (23-25, 20-25, 14-25).
The Spartans welcomed 5,006 fans to Jenison Field House for the Sunday matinee, and proceeded to fight point-for-point with their archrivals until Michigan pulled away in the final points of each of the first two sets. In the third, MSU battled back to within a point of UM at 15-14 after trailing by three, but then saw their archrivals score 10 straight points to close out the third set and take the match by a 3-0 score.
Michigan State (11-16, 4-14 B1G) dropped its third straight match, falling to No. 5 Wisconsin on the road on Friday, 3-1.
Sarah Franklin overcame a slow start to put down eight of her 14 kills in the final set, and she added four digs, three blocks, and a pair of assists. Biamba Kabengele had nine kills and two blocks with a pair of aces, and Emma Monks led MSU with six blocks, hit .444 and had five kills.
Paige Jones led all scorers with 16 kills, and Jess Mruzik had 13 kills and 15 digs for the visiting Wolverines (16-11, 9-9 B1G)
The Spartans host Illinois and Northwestern next weekend to close out the regular season.
PLAYER HIGHS
- Sarah Franklin had 14 kills, eight of which came in the third set. She added a pair of blocks and two assists.
- Lauryn Gibbs had 21 digs and four assists on the day, just missing her career best of 22 digs.
- Emma Monks had a match-best six blocks (one solo), and also had five kills and hit .444
STATS AND STORYLINES
- MSU had 11 blocks, their sixth double-digit blocking effort in the last eight games. MSU had nine blocks against Wisconsin on Friday to just miss that mark.
- Michigan takes the 2021 State Pride Flag with a pair of wins over the Spartans this season.
- Naya Gros had five blocks and added four kills.
- Biamba Kabengele contributed nine kills, two aces, and a pair of stuffs.
SET SYNOPSIS
- SET ONE: MSU took a 5-1 lead n the strength of three kills and a block, but UM came right back with a 5-0 run to take its first lead. The teams were tied at 9-9 before MSU put together a 3-0 run, which was countered by a 4-0 stretch for the Wolverines and a Spartan time out. UM ran it out to seven straight to take a 16-12 advantage to match the largest lead for either team in the set, but Molly Johnson stopped the run with a kill from the right pin, and Gros and Franklin followed with a block on the opposite pin. The teams went back to trading points and were tied at 21-21, and the Spartans were forced to call a time out when the Wolverines scored the next two to take a 23-21 lead. MSU got a kill from Franklin out of the break, and Bishop made it 24-23 with a dump on two – but a solo block by Jacque Boney gave the Wolverines the first-set victory. Kabengele hit .714 (5-0-7) in the opening frame, and Franklin also had five kills. Naa Gross had a hand on three of MSU's four blocks, and the Spartans hit .293. It was an evenly played frame for sure – The Wolverines had one less hitting error and hit .342, as both teams had 17 kills.
- SET TWO: MSU took an early three-point advantage in the set at 8-3, but the Wolverines tied it up at 10-10. A 7-3 Michigan run allowed them their largest lead of the match (17-13) to that point, as MSU was hitting .056 in the set as the visitors built their lead. The Spartans flexed their muscle to score seven of the next 11 points to pull within one at 21-20 when Franklin tooled the block, but the Wolverines closed out the frame on a 4-0 run (25-20) to take a 2-0 match lead. Kabengele led MSU with four kills and a block in the set, while both Monks and Gros had a pair. Lauryn Gibbs had six digs for the second straight set.
- SET THREE: Things did not look good early for MSU, as it fell behind 7-2 on a Hannah Grant service run. The Spartans countered, however, scoring seven of the next eight to pull ahead 9-8, as Kabengele did her thing at the service line with a five-point personal run (one ace), as Franklin put down four kills. Trailing by three, MSU pulled back within one at 15-14, but then Michigan reeled off nine straight to get to match point , then sealed it on a kill by Jess Mruzik, who finished the day with a double-double (13k, 15d). Sarah Franklin had eight of her 14 kills in the final frame (8-0-17), while Lauryn Gibbs had eight of her 21 digs.
Team Stats
Mich
MSU
Kills
45
38
Errors
12
19
Attempts
116
116
Hitting %
.284
.164
Points
57
52
Assists
43
37
Aces
5
3
Blocks
7
11
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
14
Aces
0
Blocks
3
Kills
9
Aces
2
Blocks
2
Kills
5
Aces
0
Blocks
6
Kills
4
Aces
0
Blocks
4
Players Mentioned
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DS
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