Thursday, March 28, 2024

First road victory comes at Purdue

October 8, 2001

West Lafayette, Ind. - One injured leader couldn’t stop MSU on Saturday.

After losing the first game to Purdue and watching as senior outside hitter Erin Hartley rolled her ankle and took a seat, things looked grim for the Spartans (10-3, 3-3 Big Ten).

But the team regrouped and won the next three games against Purdue, taking the match 3-1 and claiming its first Big Ten road win.

“It’s a relief to get our first road win, because we don’t have it hanging over heads anymore,” Hartley said. “We can win on the road, and now we know we can win on the road.”

The Boilermakers (1-11, 1-5) put together a four-point run in game one to overtake a 29-27 Spartan lead and win the match 31-29.

Spartan head coach Chuck Erbe said it was disappointing to start 0-1 against a typically weak Purdue team.

“We certainly put ourselves in a position to win game one,” Erbe said, “and we let it slip away from us.”

But the real scare came early in game two, when Hartley landed from a kill on junior middle blocker Angela Morley’s foot and sprained her left ankle. Hartley sat out for the next 16 points.

Hartley re-entered with the score MSU 12-11, and soon after, gave the Spartans an emotional boost by recording a block, a kill and an ace in four straight points. The Spartans then led 18-15 and didn’t trail the remainder of the game, winning game two 30-25.

The Boilermakers controlled game three from the start. A kill from middle blocker Eryn Leach gave Purdue a 20-14 lead.

But the Spartans responded with a five-point run behind the service of sophomore defensive specialist Emmy Miller. Miller’s ace shifted the game’s momentum and sent Purdue into a timeout trailing 20-18.

With emotions running rampant, the Spartans managed to maintain their focus, sophomore middle blocker Jenny Rood said.

“I think the girls stayed really poised throughout all of the emotion of the match,” she said

Fresh from the timeout, the Boilermakers stretched to a four-point lead, when middle blocker Tiffany Yoskey set the score at 25-21 with a kill. But the Boilermakers couldn’t stop another MSU run, and the Spartans rallied to a win game three, 31-29.

The Spartans’ passing game dominated game four as the team tallied one of its most error-free matches.

“The most pleasing part of the match tonight was that we only had one receiving error in the entire match,” Erbe said. “Passing is what helped us win the fourth game, and without that kind of passing we don‘t win.”

A couple of heavily disputed illegal hit calls on the Spartans caused tempers and emotions to rise, both on the bench and on the floor. But the Spartans took the adversity and profited from it, sophomore setter Nikki Colson said.

“When bad calls are made, we thrive off it,” Colson said. “I always tell Angela and Jenny, ‘make them pay for it and put one down,’”

Minus the heated calls, the Spartans showcased their passing game.

The near-perfect passing pushed the Spartans to a 30-25 game-four victory, closing the match 3-1.

Rood said the Spartans needed to stop letting late leads slip away.

“Near the end of games, we pretty much have had enough and were like, ‘we’re not going to lose this match,’” Rood said.

The Spartans got a team-high 19 kills from junior outside hitter Kyla Smith, who also had a match-high 14 defensive digs. It was Smith’s fifth double-double of the season.

Rood had 15 kills with only four attack errors en route to a .324 hitting percentage, second on the team only to Hartley’s .333 percentage. Freshman outside hitter Kim Schram had 13 kills of her own.

Colson finished with 59 assists and said many players, especially left side hitters Smith and Schram, stepped up after Hartley’s injury.

“I think our left side hitters did a great job of stepping up with Erin not being able to hit, especially Kim Schram,” Colson said. “Kyla (Smith) is always stepping up, and I think Kim really came through tonight.”

Though the Spartans did not have the most efficient of attacks, Erbe said his team showed a lot of character in the victory.

“I‘m pleased with a win, even if it wasn’t too pretty,” he said. “We gutted this one out.”

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