Michigan
22-6, 10-6Big Ten
Michigan State
13-13, 5-10Big Ten
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 28 | 17 | 22 | 17 | 1 |
| Michigan | 26 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
U-M Rallies Past Michigan State to Retain State Pride Flag
11/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Cliff Keen Arena)
Result: #19 Michigan 3, Michigan State 1 (26-28, 25-17, 25-22, 25-17)
Records: U-M (22-6, 10-6 Big Ten), MSU (13-13, 5-10 Big Ten)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Nov. 21 -- at Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minn.), 7 p.m. CST
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 19-ranked University of Michigan volleyball team defeated in-state rival Michigan State in front of a sellout crowd on Friday night (Nov. 14) in Cliff Keen Arena, keeping the State Pride flag in Ann Arbor for the second straight season. Freshman Alex Hunt (Granger, Ind./South Bend St. Joseph) led the Wolverine offense with 15 kills, while the U-M defense held MSU to a .090 attack percentage.
Alex Hunt
In the opening set, Michigan raced out to a 5-0 lead as Hunt posted two quick terminations and senior Beth Karpiak (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township) added a kill before the Spartans could get on the board. Michigan State whittled away at the deficit and pulled within two, 10-8, before the Wolverines reeled off seven of the next eight points for a 17-10 lead. The Spartans then put together a 7-1 run of their own to make it 18-17 and MSU eventually tied the set at 19-all. The Spartans were staring at set point up 24-21, but a quick scoring string by the Wolverines knotted it up at 24-all. After two more ties down the stretch, Michigan State was able to record the final two points and take the opening frame, 28-26. Hunt led Michigan with five kills and sophomore Lexi Zimmerman (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) hit .429 in the set to go with 12 assists.
After falling behind early in set two, Michigan battled back to eventually force an 11-11 tie. Utilizing unforced Michigan State errors and timely kills from junior Juliana Paz (Porto Alegre, Brazil/Iowa Western CC), Michigan pushed its way to a three-point lead, 18-15, just past the midway point. The Maize and Blue then went on a 5-0 run to stretch the lead to eight, 23-15, and cruise to a 25-17 win. The Michigan defense held MSU to a -.020 hitting percentage in the stanza and received four kills from Hunt as it evened the match at a set apiece heading to intermission.
Set three was nip-and-tuck as Michigan took an 11-8 lead on back-to-back MSU miscues to force a Spartan timeout. Down 12-8, the Spartans scored four straight to tie the set and eventually pushed their way to a 16-13 lead. The Wolverines countered with a mini run of their won, tying the set at 19-all on a kill from junior Megan Bower (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) and two MSU miscues. Down 22-20, the Maize and Blue rallied behind kills from Hunt and Karpiak as well as a Bower service ace for a 25-22 victory.
Michigan controlled the fourth set from the start, building a 12-8 advantage thanks to hot hitting from Hunt and Paz. The lead grew to 18-12 on kills from Paz and Karpiak, and Michigan scored seven of the next 12 points to defeat MSU, 25-17. Karpiak, Hunt and Paz each had four kills in the final set, while Bower, freshman Sloane Donhoff (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) and sophomore Maggie Busch (Toledo, Ohio/Toledo Christian) each added service aces.
The Wolverines had three players reach double figures in kills with Paz recording her seventh career double-double with 12 kills and 10 digs, while Karpiak notched 12 kills of her own in addition to Hunt's team-high 15. Bower finished with three service aces to match a season high, part of eight on the night for the Wolverines.
The Wolverines will enjoy having the remainder of this weekend off before returning to action next Friday (Nov. 21) as they head to Minneapolis, Minn., to face Minnesota at 7 p.m. CST in the Sports Pavilion.
NOTES
• Michigan retained the "State Pride" flag by winning the total points tiebreaker, 181-174. The Wolverines have captured the flag 11 times since the "State Pride" series started in 1990.
• The Wolverines donned maize jerseys for the first time since a 3-1 victory over Auburn on September 20.
• The Wolverines played before a sellout crowd of 1,850, marking the first sellout at Cliff Keen Arena since October 5, 2007. That match was also against Michigan State, ending in a 3-0 Michigan victory.
• Freshman middle blocker Claire McElheny celebrated her birthday with the win over the Spartans tonight. McElheny is the last of five Wolverines to celebrate her birthday during the season.
• Megan Bower's three service aces tied a season high set at the Rice Invitational Tournament on Aug. 30 versus Texas-San Antonio and was just one ace shy of tying her career-high mark.
• The win against Michigan State marks the Wolverines' fourth straight victory, their second-longest streak of the season. U-M started the season 13-0.
QUOTES
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
On the overall play versus Michigan State ... "I'm proud of how we competed tonight. I don't think it was our best match by any stretch, and part of that is on Michigan State. I thought they played us extremely tough, which we expected. Sometimes you don't play well, but you have to find ways get points and come out on top. Sometimes you play really well, but you don't compete. Tonight, I thought we competed extremely hard and I am proud of that."
On the slow start in set one ... "I thought we started out very aggressive and we were attacking well and dictating play a little bit, but they came back on us and all of a sudden we got tentative and started thinking more instead of just playing. We weren't playing bad, we were just thinking too much and we weren't sharp and weren't as aggressive as we had been the last few weeks."
On the message to the team before set two ... "The biggest thing we said was to relax and just trust your ability and go play. We weren't sharp tonight like we were on Wednesday night (vs. Ohio State), and I attribute that to us just not relaxing. We had spurts of that tonight where we relaxed and got into a rhythm, but for the most part we were a little tight."
On the serve-receive game ... "That's our game. We know we have to do that well. That is what we didn't do at their place earlier this season. We knew we had to attack them from the service line tonight. I thought we really served well all night tonight and that really set the match up in our favor."
On the play of setter Lexi Zimmerman ... "Lexi really had to settle the match down for us and find a way for us to be successful out there tonight. It was on her shoulders to settle the team down and to dictate the flow and she did that tonight. That is sign of maturity. It wasn't an easy match to set tonight. It was a hard match to set, but I thought she did a terrific job."
On the play of Alex Hunt ... "I think Alex was great for us, but I think all of our hitters have really stepped up for us lately. I think Juliana (Paz), Megan (Bower) and Karlee (Bruck) have all been huge for us these last few weeks. Karlee and Alex had to battle for everything they got tonight, and as young players that is really tough, but they have been doing a great job in that regard of not getting discouraged and pressing along."
Sophomore Setter Lexi Zimmerman
On the overall play versus Michigan State ... "I think we are a team that feeds off emotion. When we got into the locker room we realized that we needed to come out with a ton of energy, feed off the crowd and really get things going. I think we came out with a purpose in the third set and we carried that through the rest of the night."
On the play of Juliana Paz ... "She is carrying a big load for us right now. She is doing a great job of handling that and I also think that she was on a mission tonight, being that we had the Brazil night theme going on, I think she really wanted to represent and she did that."
On keeping the "State Pride" flag ... "Anytime you get an in-state rival it is huge. Michigan State is a huge match. In the locker room as soon as we were done, we weren't really sure if we got to keep the flag because we didn't know if we had won the tiebreaker, but as soon as coach told us that we got to keep it, the whole locker room just went crazy with excitement. We felt like we really accomplished something."
