Michigan State University Athletics
Friday, November 29
East Lansing, Mich.
7 pm
Michigan State University
14-15, 5-13B1G
2
vs
3
Purdue
22-7, 14-6B1G
1
2
3
4
5
F
Purdue
19
25
17
25
15
3
Michigan State
25
21
25
20
11
2
Team Stats
PUR
MSU
Kills
53
65
Errors
25
27
Attempts
142
156
Hitting %
.197
.244
Points
69.0
79.0
Assists
51
61
Aces
5
2
Blocks
11.0
12.0
Game Leaders
Kills
18
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Kills
9
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
8
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Players Mentioned
S
/ Volleyball
OH
/ Volleyball
DS
/ VolleyballOH
/ VolleyballOH
/ Volleyball
S
/ Volleyball
MB
/ VolleyballOH
/ Volleyball
OH
/ Volleyball
Hard-Fought Five-Setter Goes to No. 16 Purdue
11/29/2019 10:46:00 PM | Volleyball
East Lansing, Mich. -- For the second straight home game, Michigan State battled to the end with a ranked foe through five sets – but came up on the short end of a 3-2 decision (25-19, 21-25, 25-17, 20-25, 11-15) against No. 16 Purdue on Friday night at Jenison Field House.
MSU (14-5, 5-14 B1G) earned wins in the first and third sets, hitting .244 on the night with a season-best 65 kills (65-27-156) and holding Purdue to .198 (53-26-142). The Spartans held slight edges in blocks (12-11) and digs (54-53) as well, but also had 14 service errors on the night.
The Spartans got a season-best 18 kills from freshman Biamba Kabengele (18-10-38, .211), who was coming off a 15-kill performance against Indiana last Sunday. Both Naya Gros and Molly Johnson had nine kills, and Gros added four blocks to share the team high. Alyssa Chronowski and Meredith Norris each had eight terminations, with Norris adding eight digs. Senior setter Audrey Alford had a double-double (24 assists, 11 digs) that allowed her to surpass the 3,000 assists milestone.
Caitlyn Newton shared the match high of 18 kills, and she also had eight digs for the Boilers (22-7, 14-6 B1G). Grace Cleveland had 17 kills and a match-best six blocks, and setter Hayley Bush had 46 assists.
The Spartans host Indiana on Saturday in the season finale for both teams. First serve at Jenison Field House is 8 pm. After the match, MSU will honor its three Spartan seniors playing in their final game in Green & White.
PLAYER HIGHS
STATS & STORYLINES
SET SYNOPSIS
MSU (14-5, 5-14 B1G) earned wins in the first and third sets, hitting .244 on the night with a season-best 65 kills (65-27-156) and holding Purdue to .198 (53-26-142). The Spartans held slight edges in blocks (12-11) and digs (54-53) as well, but also had 14 service errors on the night.
The Spartans got a season-best 18 kills from freshman Biamba Kabengele (18-10-38, .211), who was coming off a 15-kill performance against Indiana last Sunday. Both Naya Gros and Molly Johnson had nine kills, and Gros added four blocks to share the team high. Alyssa Chronowski and Meredith Norris each had eight terminations, with Norris adding eight digs. Senior setter Audrey Alford had a double-double (24 assists, 11 digs) that allowed her to surpass the 3,000 assists milestone.
Caitlyn Newton shared the match high of 18 kills, and she also had eight digs for the Boilers (22-7, 14-6 B1G). Grace Cleveland had 17 kills and a match-best six blocks, and setter Hayley Bush had 46 assists.
The Spartans host Indiana on Saturday in the season finale for both teams. First serve at Jenison Field House is 8 pm. After the match, MSU will honor its three Spartan seniors playing in their final game in Green & White.
PLAYER HIGHS
- Biamba Kabengele had 18 kills, and four digs.
- Naya Gros had nine kills, hit a team best .421, and shared the team lead with four blocks.
- Molly Johnson had nine kills and two blocks (one solo)
STATS & STORYLINES
- MSU had a season-best 65 kills in the match. The previous match high of 64 came in the five-set win earlier this year at Iowa.
- Purdue has now won four straight in the series after MSU took three straight between the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
- MSU fell to 2-4 in five-set matches this season.
- Lauryn Gibbs had 22 digs in her first collegiate start at libero, adding five assists and an ace.
- Biamba Kabengele tied her career best with 18 kills, previously set against IUPUI. Her previous Big Ten best was 15 against Indiana last Sunday.
- Audrey Alford totaled 24 assists and had a double-double (her second of the season) with 11 digs. She surpassed the 3,000 digs mark in the match.
- Senior Maggie Midgette had a season-best 30 assists, and also had three digs and a block.
- Lauren Swartz shared the team blocking lead (4) with Gros and Emma Monks, and finished with seven kills. Monks had five kills and a dig.
- Meredith Norris had eight kills, hit .316, and also compiled eight digs and two solo blocks.
SET SYNOPSIS
- SET ONE: Biamba Kabengele put down a pair of early kills to help MSU to a 4-2 lead, and then extended it to 6-2 after a Chronowski kill that triggered a Purdue time out. Gros got the kill right out of the break, and then Swartz put one off the block two points later to make it 8-3. MSu was hitting .556 early (5-0-9) compared to negative for the Boilers (3-4-14, -.071). The Spartans extended their lead out to seven (13-6) after a line shot by Kabengele, and the home team was doing it with a widely-distributed offensive attack, with five different players putting down kills in the first 15 points. Caitlyn Newton had three consecutive terminations for the visitors to pull them within four at 14-10, but Swartz put down a pair of kills of her own sandwiched around a double block with Gros to make it a seven-point lead once again, forcing the Boilers to use their second time out. MSU kept coming – the hitting percentage stayed above .400 as the Spartans kept their lead at seven (20-13) and then pushed it out to a full 10 points on a kill and solo stuff by Norris. The Boilers put up a late push, three times fending off set point to make it 24-19, and MSU called time out. Norris took the line shot to finish off the set right out of the break to give MSU the first set victory. Swartz led MSU with four kills, while Norris and Kabengele each had three; Norris added a solo block. The Spartans hit better than .400 (16-3-32, .406) and out-blocked their guests 3-0 while holding Purdue to .152 (13-8-33).
- SET TWO: It was Purdue's turn to take an early lead, going up 5-2 and then again at 10-7, at which point MSU called a time out. MSU got within one at 7-6 after a pair of Chronowski kills, and 8-7 after Monks put down a kill, but the Boilers extended their lead out to four and despite MSU's best effort, the Boilers maintained that lead until 18-14, when the Spartans called time out. Purdue won the race to 20 and got its largest lead at 20-15, but MSU came right back with a three-point run on a Monks kill, a block by Johnson and Monks, and a Boiler hitting error. Purdue called time out with MSU within a pair, and Monks made it a one-point match at 20-19 out of the break. Purdue scored two straight to re-establish a three-point edge at 22-19, but a wild hitting error into the student section got MSU to 20. The Boilers got to set point at 24-20, and despite Kabengle fending off the end of the set, Purdue tied up the match at 1-1 by closing it out 25-21. Monks had four kills and a block in the frame, and both Johnson and Kabengele had three. Grace Cleveland led Purdue with six kills in the set, as the Boilers rebounded with a .310 hitting percentage (13-4-29), with MSU hitting .235 (14-6-34). Gibbs had seven digs in the frame to push her match total to 12.
- SET THREE: The teams were within a point of one another to a 10-9 Purdue lead, but MSU used a 4-0 run (all on kills) to make it 13-10 and the Boilers called time out. MSU maintained the three-point edge until Norris went off the block to make it 16-12 in favor of the home team, and MSU grew their lead to five at 18-13. The advantage grew to six on a Shkylar ace (23-17), and Kabengele got the Spartans to set point, and MSU closed it out with a block by Gros and Midgette to take the second set by a 25-17 margin. The Spartans hit .297 (17-6-37) compared to .061 (8-6-33) for the Boilermakers, and each team had four blocks. Kabengele pushed her match total to 13 kills with a 7-3-13 effort in the frame, and Gros had three kills without an error and a pair of blocks. Newton had three of Purdue's eight kills in the stanza.
- SET FOUR: The visitors took a 6-3 lead in the fourth, but MSU got back-to-back daggers from Chronowski to pull the Spartans within a point at 6-5. Purdue countered with a 3-0 run to go back up by four at 9-5, and with a 12-9 lead, used a 3-0 run on a block, a kill, and an ace to open up a six-point advantage, their largest lead of the night. MSU called time out to regroup, and after a call in avor of the visitors was overturned to pull MSU within five, another error and a Spartan block got MSU to within three at 16-13, and the Boilers called timeout. Purdue scored two quick ones to push back out by five, (18-13), but Norris put up a solo block to stop the run. The Boilers challenged the call, but it stayed with MSU to keep the Spartans within four. The Boilers took a five-point lead by winning the race to 20 on a block by Cleveland and Mohler, but MSU came right back with a kill by Johnson, a block by Gros and Kabengele, and then after a service error, a shot long by the Boilers that kept MSU within three at 21-18, but the visitors closed it out 25-20. Neither team hit particularly well in the frame – Purdue hit .129 (10-6-31) compared to just .024 for the Spartans (11-10-41), as Purdue held a slight 4-3 edge in blocks. Kabengele tacked on four kills and a block in the stanza, and Chronowski had three with a dig. Newton was Purdue's leader with three.
- SET FIVE: The Boilers used a 5-0 run to take a 6-1 lead in the fifth, but MSU stopped the run with kills by Johnson and Kabengele to pull within three. The Boilers led 8-4 at the crossover, hitting .500 (4-0-8), with MSU at 2-2-5 (.000). MSU came within a pair at 8-6 on a kill by Gros and a solo block by Swartz, and stayed within two at 11-9 after a kill by Johnson. Gros buried an overpass to bring MSU within a point at 11-10, but the Boilers challenged the call – a lengthy video review followed and upheld the call, but the Boilers scored the next two points after the hiatus to go up 13-10, and trigger an MSU time out. Gross stopped the run off a quick set in the middle, but the Spartans fell by a 15-11 score as Purdue took the final frame and the match 3-2. MSU hit .417 in the final frame, (7-2-12), but Purdue was just a touch better at .500 (9-1-16).
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