Another weekend of Spartan volleyball brought another split, but this time it earned the team a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

The Spartans will face George Mason in the first round of the tournament in South Bend, Ind.

MSU (19-11 overall, 11-9 Big Ten) picked up a thrilling five-game win over Northwestern (17-15, 10-10) on Friday night in a match that seesawed back and forth from the first serve to the final kill.

On Saturday, the Spartans didn't show the same heart they played with the night before, falling to Wisconsin (23-8, 14-6) in three games.

Regardless, MSU head coach Chuck Erbe felt the team's performance on Saturday was disappointing.

"If we had won tonight, we would have been guaranteed in," Erbe said.

"I mean, this was a bad loss," Erbe said of the 24-30, 19-30 and 27-30 defeat. "We didn't play well and lost badly against Indiana and Ohio State, but those were on the road. This was at home - where we're supposed to defend our territory."

The Spartans didn't defend their court from the first serve. What was shocking about the loss is the Spartans never controlled the match or had Wisconsin on its heels.

MSU didn't take a lead in the match until 5-4 in the third game, and even that only lasted for a minute. The Spartans did grab a two-point cushion in that same game at 22-20, but they were outfought down the stretch.

For the night, the Spartans hit a dismal .088 compared to the Badgers .221. They also were out-blocked 9-7 and out-dug 47-45.

"We fought really hard yesterday (Friday), and we made mistakes, and we were inconsistent, but it was evident that we had a lot of passion for what we were doing and fighting really hard," sophomore outside hitter Kim Schram said.

"And tonight, for whatever reason, that inconsistency wasn't attached to the same passion and the determination to win."

But if the Spartans ever look back on this weekend for motivation for NCAA Tournament competition, they'll have to look no further than Friday's triumphant win.

MSU played hard from the get-go and picked up the 29-31, 30-19, 27-30, 31-29 and 15-9 win.

MSU dominated nearly all of the statistical categories, but a feisty Northwestern team took advantage of Spartan errors at costly times to send the match to five games.

The Spartans had more kills (76-66), a better hitting percentage (.274-.162), more service aces (8-5), more digs (53-43) and more blocks (21.5-9.5).

Nevertheless, all those statistical wins would have been for naught had the Spartans not turned things around when a loss looked inevitable late in game four.

MSU trailed 24-19 in the game and was already behind in the match two games to one. The Spartans fought and outscored the Wildcats 12-5 down the stretch.

Then in the fifth and deciding game, the Spartans dominated. MSU never trailed and capped off the match on two massive kills from Schram.

"We knew if we could just get it to a fifth game we would be all right," said senior middle Angela Morley, who had 10 blocks and 13 kills in the match.

"When we started to come back, the crowd really got behind us, and we just rode the momentum 'til the end."