The Spartans started the match off strong, pulling away late in the first set to win 25-17.
But the match seemed to unravel from there for the Spartans as they seemed to lose focus.

The Wildcats controlled the entire second set as errors by the Spartans ended rallies that could have brought the team back into contention. The third set was much of the same as Northwestern took a late 21-20 lead to take the lead in the match with a 25-21 win.

From then the MSU defense seemed to wake up, forcing the Wildcats to hit less than .150 in the last two sets.

“Our defense is getting really, really good,” junior middle blocker Vanessa King said. “(Our back row) are all doing great. When our passing is on, our whole team is on. So, that’s a lot of pressure on them, And they’re doing a really good job of keeping it balanced back there.”

The Spartans pulled away early in the fourth set and kept control for most of the match building an 18-12 lead. Northwestern rallied to keep the set close, but the effort was cut short as MSU won the set 25-23.

In the final set, the play was as the rest of the game had been. Northwestern took an early 6-3 lead, but MSU rallied back to tie the match with an amzing diving dig by Allyson Karaba that sailed over the net into an empty space in the Wildcats defense.

Trailing 9-8, MSU pulled off a 7-3 run, behind the strong play of freshman outside hitter Kyndra Abron and sophomore outside hitter Megan Schatzle, to win the set 15-12.

“They did really good,” King said. “Especially when we were just throwing them back to Kyndra. She was doing great just hammering through the block just doing what she does, hammer the ball. Megan had a great night. It was her birthday, too, so every time she got a kill I said, ‘Birthday kill.’”

Schatzle led the team in kills with a career-high 14 kills.

“It was fun, it was exciting,” Schatzle said. “It was great to win in five games. It wasn’t our best game but I’m excited to get the win.”