Michigan
17-4, 5-3Big Ten
Ohio State
15-6, 3-5Big Ten
Wolverines Oust Ohio State in Four Sets
10/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 17, 2009
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Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Cliff Keen Arena)
Score: #11 Michigan 3, Ohio State 1
Records: U-M (17-4, 5-3 Big Ten), Ohio State (15-6, 3-5 Big Ten)
Next U-M Event: Wednesday, Oct. 21 -- at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.), 7 p.m.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After dropping the first set, the No. 11-ranked University of Michigan volleyball team won three straight sets to oust Ohio State, 24-26, 25-23, 25-17, 25-22, on Saturday night (Oct. 17) at Cliff Keen Arena. Sophomore Alex Hunt (Granger, Ind./South Bend St. Joseph) had a team-high 15 kills, while seniors Veronica Rood (Temperance, Mich./Bedford) and Megan Bower (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) contributed 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Meanwhile, sophomore Lexi Zimmerman (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) hit at an efficient 11-for-16 clip to tie a season high in kills.
In set four, the Wolverines put the Buckeyes away with their third straight set win as they built an 8-4 lead and never looked back. U-M's lead ballooned as much as 12-6 early, forcing an OSU timeout, which lit a fire under the Buckeyes, who cut it to 12-10 into a U-M timeout. The Wolverines settled down and slowly built their advantage to 19-14 and held a four-point advantage or larger the rest of the way as Zimmerman's flip down the middle handed U-M its final point in the 25-22 win.
U-M fell down 4-1 early in set one only to climb back and build a 10-9 lead behind a balanced attack. Ohio State answered to grab the lead back 16-13. After a Michigan timeout and another OSU point, Michigan won 11 of the next 18 points for a 24-all tie. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes won the final two points for the 26-24 win. Ohio State hit at a .346 clip compared to U-M's .132 in the set.
In set two, neither team gained more than a two-point advantage until the Buckeyes earned a 19-16 lead, causing a U-M timeout. The Wolverines came out on fire as they took the lead back, 20-18, behind a Paz ace and an OSU attack error. After Ohio State tied it at 22-all, a kill from Bower put Michigan up for good as Hunt finished it off with a laser, giving U-M the 25-23 win to even the match.
Set three was all Michigan as the Wolverines built a 10-4 advantage thanks to six OSU attack errors. U-M earned two more points before Ohio State broke the string, but the Wolverines regained control, stretching the advantage to 21-8. The Buckeyes fought back late before kills from Rood and Paz and an OSU service error gave U-M the 25-17 triumph. U-M's strong defensive presence stifled the Buckeye offense to the tune of a -.111 attack percentage.
The Wolverines have a three-day break before heading to East Lansing, Mich., for a mid-week battle with Michigan State on Wednesday (Oct. 21) at 7 p.m. at the Spartan's Jenison Field House. As a reminder, Michigan's contest from last night (Friday, Oct. 16) against top-ranked Penn State will be shown at 1 p.m. on ESPN2 tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 18).
N O T E S
• Michigan has now won three straight matches against Ohio State in Keen Arena and five straight overall.
• With her eight kills Saturday night, Juliana Paz eclipsed the 700 career kill plateau. Paz now has 701 kills in her two-year U-M career.
• Lexi Zimmerman tied her season high in kills with 11 on Saturday night and in the process eclipsed the 400-kill mark for her career. Zimmerman now has 409 career terminations to go with 3,929 career aces.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
On his overall impressions of the win ... "I am just really proud of the way we played tonight. We showed a lot of fight, especially after Ohio State came out and took it too us in the first set. I am most proud of the way we responded to that, especially on the heels of that hard-fought match last night, to respond to adversity that way was great to see. I thought beginning with set two we got back to playing Michigan volleyball. That was the major difference the rest of the way because that is a great team we faced tonight."
On the second straight sell-out crowd at Keen Arena ... "It is just awesome. I heard a great quote by Lou Holtz and he talked about big crowds and telling his team that they must be here to see them because if they wanted to see the home team they would have been here last week. Last night, there was a little bit of that. Penn State draws crowds wherever they go, but tonight there as no doubt that they were here to see us, and it was awesome to give them a good show. Having a big crowd definitely helps the team. I hope that we can capture the crowds we had this weekend and bottle them for the rest of our home matches."
Contact: Matt Fancett (734) 763-4423
