Spartans Blitz Terps 3-1

GAME CAPSULE

Michigan State earned its first win of the season (1-4) with a 3-1 victory over Maryland (25-20, 25-16, 21-25, 25-16) on Friday in College Park. MSU took a 2-0 lead in the match, and came back to win it with a convincing nine-point win in the final frame.

The Spartans hit .301 on the night and had several players record season bests, spreading out the offense and playing sound defense as well. The freshman duo of Sarah Franklin and Celia Cullen were once again major parts of the storyline, as Franklin recorded her second straight double-double (16K, 11D) and Cullen had 50 assists, three aces, eight digs, two kills and a block.

From the outside, Alyssa Chronowski had her season best with 11 kills and shared the team lead in blocks with Rebecka Poljan (4), as Poljan added seven kills and three digs, hitting .333. Biamba Kabengele looked much like her late-2019 season self, putting down 13 kills, hitting .281, and pulling up a pair of digs. Meanwhile, Naya Gros hit a scorching .727 (9-1-11) and finished with three blocks.

Jada Gardner had 20 kills, nine digs, three blocks, and hit .455 for the Terps (0-7), while Erika Pritchard had 12 kills and six digs.

The teams face off again Saturday at 6 pm to conclude the season series.

PLAYER HIGHS

Celia Cullen set a season best in assists for the second straight game (50), adding eight digs, three aces, and a pair of kills.
Sarah Franklin had her second straight double-double, putting down 16 kills and adding 11 digs and a pair of blocks.
Naya Gros hit a scorching .727, recording nine kills and three blocks.
MSU had just seven hitting errors in the first two sets, but had eight in the third frame, which it dropped 25-21. MSU had just two miscues in the final set as it closed out the victory.
One achilles heel for MSU was its service errors – the Spartans had nine on the night, compared to six for the Terps. Each team had five service aces, including three for MSU freshman Celia Cullen.

STATS & STORYLINES

MSU had three players with double-digit kills. Biamba Kabengele finished with 13 kills and hit 281, while senior Alyssa Chronowski had 11 kills, hit .375, and shared the team best with four blocks.
The Spartans hit .333 or better in three of the four sets, finishing with a .301 hitting percentage on the night.
MSU snaps a four-game skid with its first victory of the season.

SET SYNOPSIS

SET ONE: Michigan State raced out to a 7-2 lead, landing kills on three of its first five swings and adding a big block by Poljan and Chronowski. Maryland called time out when MSU used a 3-0 run (from an Elena Shklyar service run) on kills by Gross, Kabengele, and Poljan to go up 10-4. The Terps had to call time out again after MSU went ahead by a 15-7 margin on a block by Poljan and Franklin. The Spartans were hitting .556 (10-0-18) to this point of the set, spreading out their offense equally among four players. Maryland trimmed the lead down to five at 21-16 with a 3-0 scoring run on a block and a kill by Erika Pritchard and a service ace by Sam Burgio, which triggered a time out from the Spartan bench. Sarah Franklin came out of the back row for set point at 24-18, and after the Terps twice fended off the end of the set, Naya Gros put it down for the first-set win, 25-20. MSU hit a season-best.390 in the set, (19-3-41), with Kabengele and Gros leading the way with five kills each, and Poljan putting down three kills with a pair of blocks. MSU did commit four service errors in the set.

SET TWO: The Spartans raced out to an 8-2 lead early in the second, but five hitting errors and a service miscue from the Terps greatly aided the MSU cause. MSU led by six (14-8) after Gros and Franklin teamed up for MSu's fourth block of the night, and Cox pushed it back out to seven with an ace, and Maryland called time out. An overall 5-1 run let MSU take its biggest lead at 23-13, but a trio of Spartan errors allowed the home team to pull back within seven. MSU closed it out with kills from Franklin and Cullen to take the set 25-16 and a 2-0 match lead. Franklin had six kills in the frame, Poljan added three, and Gros had a pair of blocks.

SET THREE: MSU's lead was much tighter in the third set, as the home team used a 4-1 run to turn a 5-3 deficit into its first lead of the day at 7-6. The Spartans called a time out, and went to Gros twice in a row out of the break to retake the lead, 8-7. He teams the teams traded points to a 10-10 deadlock, but Maryland used a 4-0 scoring run to take its largest lead of the day and force MSU to take its second timeout of the set. The home team had found its groove and extended its lead out to seven (18-11), but a service error by Maryland followed by a pair of kills from Kabengele made it a four-point MSU deficit. (18-14). Rebekah Rath and a pair of MSU errors allowed the Terps to take a 21-15 lead, but MSU roared back with six of the next seven points to pull within one at 22-21. Chronowski had a pair of kills in that run, and Cullen contributed her second ace of the night. Maryland senior Pritchard battled back after a timeout with back-to-back kills to make it a three-point advantage at set point for the home team. The Terps closed it out on a block by Gardner and Lewis to win the frame 25-21 and send it to a fourth set. Maryland, after hitting .161 in the first and .-.077 in the second, hit .438 (15-1-32) in the set win; MSU hit better than .360 in each of the first two sets and had more hitting errors in the third (8) than it had in the first two combined.

SET FOUR: MSU pulled away from a 4-3 deficit with a 5-1 run to go up 8-5 in the fourth set. MSU kept its lead and held a 13-9 advantage after Cullen's third ace of the night, and then went up 17-12 on a Franklin kill that forced Maryland into a time out. MSU held its ground to finish it out, claiming the fourth set 25-16 and the match 3-1. MSU hit .333 in the frame (12-2-30) to push its overall hitting percentage back over .300 in the match, Up 21-14, Franklin had three of the final four points of the frame on kills, while Kabengle also had three terminations in the frame to help secure MSU's victory.

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Team Stats

Sarah Franklin

Biamba Kabengele

Alyssa Chronowski

Naya Gros

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Chronowski

Celia Cullen

Sarah Franklin

Naya Gros

Biamba Kabengele

Rebecka Poljan

Elena Shklyar

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Chronowski

Celia Cullen

Sarah Franklin

Naya Gros

Biamba Kabengele

Rebecka Poljan

Elena Shklyar