No. 18 MSU volleyball swept at No. 16 Penn State
No. 18 Michigan State played its first road match of the Big Ten schedule on Friday, and couldn’t overcome 21 hitting errors in a 3-0 loss to No. 16 Penn State (22-25, 20-25, 13-25).
MSU falls to 12-3, 1-2 Big Ten with its first back-to-back losses of the year. PSU is now 10-3, 3-0 Big Ten.
MSU played a pair of tight sets to open the match, falling 25-22 and 25-20, but became a bit unhinged by a string of errors in the third set that didn’t allow the team to battle back into the match. The home team was led by 12 kills from Simone Lee, and 10 from Ali Frantti, improving to 3-0 in Big Ten play. MSU got nine kills and a match-best three blocks from Alyssa Garvelink, while Autumn Bailey had seven kills and eight digs and Rachel Minarick (21 assists, nine digs, four kills) just missed her third double-double of the season. The Spartans wrap up the weekend with a Saturday match at Rutgers. First serve from New Brunswick is at 7 pm.
SET ONE: MSU took an early three-point lead at 9-6 after a solo block by Alyssa Garvelink, but the home team stormed right back with three straight points to tie it at 9-9. A point-for-point battle ensued, and with the frame tied 14-14, the Spartans scored three of the next four points -a dump into the back corner by Minarick and kills by Bailey and Garvelink - to pull ahead by two, 17-15. Once again, the home team stormed back, scoring four straight and eight of the next 10 points to go up 23-19. Reinig got a kill into the back left corner to make it 23-20 and get the side out, A Spartan service error gave PSU set point, but an error by the Nittany Lions followed by a Bailey service ace made it 24-22 - and PSU called time out. MSU’s fifth hitting error of the set gave the Nittany Lions a 25-22 set victory; the home team hit .375 and was led by Simone Lee’s six kills, while Bailey (4-0-10) led the Spartans.
SET TWO: Neither team could build a lead more significant than two points, as PSU held a 12-10 edge. MSU pulled within a point at 13-12, and out of a timeout, PSU scored two of the next three points to make it 15-12. MSU scored the next two on kills by Bailey and Minarick, but a pair of blocks by the home team extened their lead back to three (17-14). A 4-1 Nittany Lion run was aided by a pair of MSU errors, and dipped the Spartans’ hitting percentage to .220 for the match to that point. A 20-16 PSU lead was their largest of the set, but a service error by the Nittany Lions and a kill by Garvelink turned it back into a two-point game, and the home team called time out. After a kill by Chloe Reinig made it 21-19 PSU, the Nittany Lions scored three of the next four tget to set point, and a big block by Simone Lee gave Penn State a 2-0 lead in the match. The home team posted three blocks to MSU’s one in the frame, and hit .333 to just .147 for the Spartans. Alyssa Garvelink had four blocks in the set to push her match total to seven.
SET THREE: An early 6-2 lead for the Nittany Lions was built by finishing off some entertaining rallies, and they pushed it out to 12-5, the largest lead of the night, when the Spartans called time out. In all, a 7-0 run for the home team allowed PSU to go ahead 15-5, using a pair of blocks, one kill, and three Spartan errors to their advantage. Trailling 23-10, Toliver served up back-to-back aces, and PSU coach Russ Rose called time out to try to ice the Spartan junior. A Bailey kill kept the service run going, but a kill off the block by PSU got the home team to match point.
-MSU athletic communications