Wolverines Rally To Nip Spartans, 3-2

Saturday, October 3

Ann Arbor, Mich.

7:00 PM

Michigan State University

10-5, 2-2

Michigan

12-3, 2-2

Michigan State

Michigan

10/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score

Oct. 3, 2015

Final Stats

SPARTAN SYNOPSIS
Michigan battled back from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 3-2 victory (25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 13-25, 11-15) over Michigan State in Ann Arbor on Saturday evening. MSU falls to 10-5 on the year and 2-2 in Big Ten play, while the No. 23 Wolverines, are now 12-3, and an identical 2-2 in the Big Ten.

MSU retains the State Pride Flag, emblematic of that season's supremacy in the MSU-UM series, for the sixth straight season. The teams tied in every tiebreaking category last season and shared the Flag for the first time in series history. However, with a 3-0 win on Wednesday and two set wins tonight, the Spartans retain the Flag on set victories, five to three.

SET ONE: MSU jumped out immediately, forcing the hosts into a timeout at 7-3 as the Spartans had four blocks in their opening seven points. MSU pushed its lead out to six (12-6), but a 4-1 run for the Wolverines briefly trimmed that lead to just three points. However, the Spartans kept asserting themselves, and got back to the six-point advantage, 21-16, at which point Michigan called its second timeout. The Wolverines got back-to-back points out of the break before MSU got the sideout on a UM service error, and a double hit by UM gave MSU a 23-17 advantage. Garvelink closed out the set with MSU's seventh block to secure the 25-18 victory. Kranda had five kills and three blocks in the frame, while Megan Tompkins tallied five blocks, one solo.

SET TWO: A tight one-and-two point set became a four-point affair when MSU used a 6-0 run to make a 16-all score a 21-16 advantage. The Spartans got five of those six points with Holly Toliver at the service line, a rotation that the Wolverines struggled with on Wednesday as well. Leading 23-18, MSU got the sideout and to set point on a Kranda termination, but a Carolina Knop kill, block out of bounds, and long shot by Kranda gave the Wolverines a three-point run and made it 24-21. Out of the MSU timeout, Megan Tompkins got the termination at the left pin for a 2-0 match lead.

SET THREE: Michigan came out firing on all cylanders after the break and jumped out to a 6-2 lead, but the teams kept punching and counter-punching. UM held a four point edge at 12-8 before MSU ripped off four straight points to tie it, but their hosts came back with a four-point run of their own to give UM a 16-12 edge, forcing the Spartans into a time out. UM got a cross-court termination from Adeja Lambert to give the home team its largest lead of the match, 17-12. MSU trimmed it down to three, but the home team was determined, and despite MSU fighting off set point twice, the Wolverines prevailed, 25-20. Carly Skojt led the Wolverines with five kills in the frame.

SET FOUR: Michigan came out firing on all cylanders after the break and jumped out to a 6-2 lead, and used a red-hot 12-4 run to make it a 19-8 lead - with Caroline Knop serving up seven of those points. MSU got a 4-0 run to trim down its largest deficit of the week, cutting it down to 20-11, but Michigan wrapped it up with a 25-13 win. The Spartans hit just .034 in the set, with seven kills against six errors.

SET FIVE: Michigan came out with a 5-3 lead, but the Spartans charged out with a 3-0 run on kills by Fitterer, Garvelink, and Minarick to take a 6-5 lead, at which point the Wolverines called timeout. It was a point-for-point battle until a Michigan service error followed by an ace by Kristen Muir gave MSU its largest lead at 10-8. After a UM time out, a kill and three straight blocks for the Wolverines swung the momentum back for Blue,with a 12-10 lead. Knop served the Wolverines to set point at 14-10, but a Reinig kill fought off match point. An Adeja Lambert kill off the block sealed the win for the Wolverines, giving them a 3-2 match victory.

QUOTABLE:
"We knew that they were going to fight back after we won on Wednesday, and we maybe got a little too comfortable after taking the lead tonight. This could have been an important building block for us, but we let it get away after we had the 2-0 lead. We let them hang around and gain confidence in front of their home crowd. Part of growth as a team is learning to overcome adversity, but also handling prosperity - and this was a pretty tough lesson for us tonight."

- Head Coach Cathy George

TOP PERFORMERS

Brooke Kranda led MSU with a team-high 15 kills and and added three blocks.
Abby Monson had double-digit digs for the tenth straight match, and her 18 was a career-best in a Big Ten match.
Megan Tompkins contributed six blocks and six kills, hitting .462 (6-0-13). She had five blocks in the opening set.
Holly Toliver contributed six kills , three digs, and three aces, all three coming in the first set.
Chloe Reinig had 14 kills in her second game back after nissing three weeks with injury. It was her third-highest total of the season.
Rachel Minarick had 27 assists, and added seven digs and six kills, while Halle Peterson recorded 20 assistss and also had five digs.

STATS AND STORYLINES

MSU out-blocked the Wolverines 11-9 in the match, and by a 20-14 margin in the two-match series. MSU held a 9-5 edge in Wednesday's match. MSU had a 7-1 edge in blocks after the first set, and the Wolverines used three big stuffs in the fifth set to fight back from a two-point deficit.
The three straight set wins by the Wolverines snapped a streak of seven straight set victories for the Spartans, dating back to a 3-1 win at Jenison Field House last year. MSU won the final two sets in that contest, three straight on Wednesday, and then the first two sets tonight.
The Spartans move to 52-40-1 all-time against the Wolverines.
MSU is now 10-2 when taking a first-set victory this season. Both losses are in Big Ten matches.
Sarah Washegesic had her second career double-digit dig performance with 11. Her career best (14) came vs. Butler on Sept. 4.
The Spartans continue a three-game road swing with games at No. 4 Nebraska (Wednesday) and Iowa (Saturday) this coming week.