Senior middle blocker Alexis Mathews laughs after high-fiving fellow teammates before the game against Oregon, Sept. 6, 2013, at Jenison Field House. The Spartans defeated Oregon, 3-1. Danyelle Morrow/The State News
—The momentum from Friday’s win over national championship-runner up Oregon carried over for MSU as they rolled to a 3-0 sweep over Oregon State Saturday night (25-12, 25-16, 25-17).
The No. 20 Spartans (5-1 overall) maintained control over the Beavers (4-2 overall) for much of the match. It was the second straight loss for Oregon State, who lost to Michigan on Friday night.
With the weekend sweep, head coach Cathy George said she saw improvement compared to the team’s performance at the Hokie Invitational last weekend. The team is beginning to find comfort with the lineup changes that were made in response to injuries.
“We were out of sorts with the different lineups we had been using, and we settled in and everyone was more comfortable with the work we did all week to prepare,” George said. “And it showed.”
MSU cruised to a 25-12 win in set one, and followed up with a slightly more competitive 25-16 win in set two.
Oregon State upped the ante in set three. After falling behind 13-6, the Beavers scored six straight — slicing MSU’s lead to 13-12. With a kill from senior outside hitter Lauren Wicinski, Oregon State had two straight kills of their own to even up the score at 14-14.
MSU quickly refocused, outscoring Oregon State 11-3 for the rest of the match.
On Friday, Wicinski and senior middle blocker Alexis Mathews lead a two-pronged attack that overwhelmed Oregon. That offensive output continued on Saturday as Wicinski had a team-leading 12 kills for the game, and Mathews came in second with eight.
George was impressed with the weekend play of her two seniors.
“Alexis Mathews has had a great weekend, no doubt about it, and has taken over and has been unstoppable at the net,” George said. “And Lauren does what Lauren does, she hammers.”
With both MSU and Michigan sweeping Oregon and Oregon State this weekend, senior outside hitter Lauren Wicinski said it was a good weekend for the Big 10.
“We were really excited about yesterday’s win, and I think it fueled us that Michigan beat them,” Wicinski said. “We wanted to make sure that as a Big 10 (team) we beat them too.”
Junior outside hitter Taylor Galloway said the weekend sweep should provide good momentum for the rest of the season.
“(Oregon and Oregon State are) two great teams, and we had been preparing all week for them,” Galloway said. “Now that we have put them away and beat them, it’s really good for us looking into next weekend.”
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