Spartans Sweep Oakland, 3-0

GAME CAPSULE

Michigan State earned a 3-0 sweep of visiting Oakland (26-24, 25-13, 25-20) to open the Green & White Volleyball Classic.

MSU continued its hot hitting from the middle, as Rebecka Poljan went off for 13 kills and hit .632, adding three blocks. Naya Gros hit .600 (7-1-10), and also had three stuffs.

Redshirt freshman Sarah Franklin tied for the team high in kills (13) and had a team-best nine digs, and Cecilee Max-Brown had 12 kills, six digs, and hit .308.

MSU showed some rust in the opening set after a one-week layoff, trailing the opening frame 7-0 before rallying to win it 26-24. MSU dominated the second set and took the third one 25-20. MSU hit .371 on the night (49-13-97).

Michigan State completes the Green & White Classic with a pair of games on Saturday, taking on IUPUI (11 am) and Central Michigan (7 pm) at Jenison Field House.

PLAYER HIGHS

Rebecka Poljan had 13 kills and hit .632, sharing the team lead with three blocks.
Naya Gros had seven kills, hit .600, and had three blocks.
Sarah Franklin had 13 kills, nine digs, and a pair of stuffs.

STATS AND STORYLINES

Talia Edmonds had a career-best three access and added eight digs.
Cecilee Max-Brown had 12 kills, hit .308, and contributed four digs and a pair of blocks.
Poljan hit .400 or better for the fourth time in seven games.

SET SYNOPSIS

SET ONE: The visitors raced out to a 7-0 lead, forcing MSU into an early time out. The Spartans went to Poljan for the next two points, and Poljan and Johnson teamed up for the first block of the night to quickly bring MSU back within four. With the Golden Grizzlies maintaining their four-point edge to 18-14, MSU got back-to-back kills from Max-Brown and Gros to whittle down the visitor lead to two. After an Oakland time out, Cullen and Max Brown went back-to-back to make it a one-point deficit at 19-18. The teams traded errors as they got over the 20-point mark, and the Spartans were in need of a strong mini-run to get in control. MSU called time out after Oakland went up two (24-22) on a Patti Cesaarini kill, but got consecutive terminations from Max-Brown to tie things up at 24-all. An ace by Edmonds got the Spartans to set point, and an Oakland error gave MSU the first-set win. Both Max-Brown and Franklin had four kills, while Poljan and Gros each contributed three kills and a block. MSU recovered from an early negative-hitting situation to hit .282 in the set (16-5-39).

SET TWO: The teams stayed within a point to 6-6, but the Spartans used a 5-0 scoring run to go up 10-6 and force Oakland into a time out – that coring run came via two kills from Poljan and two aces from Edmonds. MSU kept swinging freely, going up six (14-8) as Max-Brown and Franklin got in on the offensive effort. Any rust MSU had in the first set from a one-week layoff disappeared by the second frame, as the Spartans took a 18-9 lead by hitting .525 (12-2-19). MSU had a 22-11 lead after Gros put down a pair, and then got to set point at 24-12 when the Spartans went to Max-Brown for consecutive points, and then closed it out with a Poljan kill for a 2-0 match lead, 25-13. Poljan and Franklin each had five kills in the frame, with Gros adding four with a block. Edmonds pushed her match total to three aces and added four digs. MSU hit a scorching .571 in the set, (18-2-28), and held Oakland to .174 7-3-23).

SET THREE: The teams were within 1-2 points of one another as the scores climbed, and the squads were tied at 16-all – MSU on a .261 hitting percentage, Oakland .176. MSU's An ace by Johnson and a block by Gros & Max-Brown pushed the Spartan lead out to two, (19-17), forcing the Grizzlies to take a second time out. Out of the break, a Max-Brown kill got the Spartans to 20, and after a Franklin kill and Oakland error, the Grizzlies called their second time out trailing 22-18. MSU closed it out with a 25-20. Both Max-Brown and Poljan had five kills and two blocks in the final frame, while Franklin added four.

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Team Stats

Rebecka Poljan

Sarah Franklin

Cecilee Max-Brown

Naya Gros

Players Mentioned

Talia Edmonds

Sarah Franklin

Naya Gros

Cecilee Max-Brown

Rebecka Poljan

Players Mentioned

Talia Edmonds

Sarah Franklin

Naya Gros

Cecilee Max-Brown

Rebecka Poljan