Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
12-1,2-1Big Ten
UCLA
10-4,1-2Big Ten
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan St. | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| UCLA | 16 | 19 | 14 | 0 |
Spartans Start West Coast Road Trip with Sweep of UCLA
10/3/2026 12:48:00 AM | Volleyball
LOS ANGELES – Michigan State volleyball earned its first conference road sweep since 2024 with a straight-set victory (25-16, 25-19, 25-14) over UCLA Friday night inside Pauley Pavilion.Â
MSU moves to 12-1 overall (2-1 B1G), while UCLA drops to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference. The Spartans' sweep was their first on the road in a B1G match since a 3-0 victory over Iowa on the road on Nov. 17, 2024.Â
The Spartans hit .284 for the match and held the Bruins to .039 hitting while leading in kills (40-28), service aces (4-1), digs (39-31) and total blocks (10-7).Â
Senior outside hitter Alanna Bankston led MSU in kills with 15 on .323 hitting for her 10th match with double-digit kills in 2026. She also added five digs and a pair of blocks. Junior middle blocker Carmen Waye added eight kills on 10 swings with just one error for a .700 clip and led MSU in service aces with two while adding a team-best five total blocks alongside senior middle blocker Zora Hardison. Freshman outside hitter Madi Andrews posted six kills and eight digs.Â
Redshirt sophomore setter Malayah Long provided a team-best 32 assists and tallied five digs with a pair of blocks. Senior libero Lia Schneider led in digs with 13, posting her seventh match of the season with double-digit digs, and added one service ace. Senior Taylah Holdem recorded one service ace and six digs.Â
UCLA called an early timeout after MSU used a Hardison solo block, Hardison kill and Bruin attack error for a 3-0 run and 8-3 lead in the first set. UCLA responded with a kill out of the timeout to cut the lead to four, but back-to-back points MSU points from an Andrews kill and UCLA error helped the Spartans to a six-point lead before a 5-2 MSU run finished off by a pair of Bankston kills took the teams to the media timeout at a 15-6 MSU advantage. A UCLA error out of the timeout then extended the MSU lead to 10 at 16-6. The Bruins got as close as eight with a 3-0 run at 21-13, but back-to-back MSU kills from Hardison and Long extended the advantage back to 10 at 23-13. UCLA stopped MSU's first set point at 24-15 after a Bankston kill, but a second Bankston kill, her sixth of the set, ended the first, 25-16.Â
Neither team was able to take more than a two-point lead in a back-and-forth start to the second set until the Bruins used a 6-1 run to take a three-point advantage at 10-7, forcing an MSU timeout. A 3-0 MSU run out of the timeout with kills from Waye and Hayley Ogden and a UCLA attack error tied the set at 10-10 before the Spartans used kills from Waye and Ogden and a Waye solo block for a 3-1 run and two-point lead at 13-11. The Bruins tied the set at 13-13 and again at 14-14 before an attack error helped the Spartans to a 15-14 lead at the media timeout. A service ace from Holdem out of the timeout extended the MSU lead to a pair before kills from Andrews and Hardison helped the Spartans to an 18-15 lead to force UCLA into a timeout of their own. The Bruins fired off back-to-back points out of the timeout to get within one before a 4-0 run MSU run with a block from Waye and Long, a kill from Long and Schneider service ace forced a second UCLA timeout at 22-17. An Ogden kill got the Spartans to set point before a Bruin attack error ended the set, 25-19.Â
In another back-and-forth start to the third set, MSU took a three-point lead with a pair of kills from Waye and a kill from Bankston to take a 10-7 lead. The Bruins used back-to-back kills to cut the lead to one, but a pair of Ogden kills, block from Ogden and Waye and two-straight service aces from Waye helped the Spartans to a 5-1 run to take a 15-10 advantage at the media timeout. A pair of Bruin errors and a kill from Bankston then gave the Spartans a 19-12 lead to force a UCLA timeout. A block from Bankston and Waye and three UCLA errors helped the Spartans end the set on a 4-0 run, ending the set and match, 25-14.Â
Up next, MSU finishes its Los Angeles road trip at USC on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 5 p.m. ET. The match will stream on B1G+.Â
