The MSU volleyball team's goal of ending the season at . 500 stands strong as the team split this past weekend's matches, beating Iowa 3-0 on Friday night before being swept by No. 5 Minnesota.
"We had to win four out of the six matches," head coach Chuck Erbe said. "I don't care which four."
Before the weekend, Erbe said the team's goal put the Spartans in a position to possibly earn an NCAA Tournament bid by reaching .500 record this season.
With the split, MSU (11-13 overall, 6-10 Big Ten) now needs to win three of its remaining four matches.
The team easily beat Iowa (9-18 overall, 1-14 Big Ten) in three games, posting more kills, assists, digs and blocks with fewer errors than the Hawkeyes.
Senior outside hitter Kim Schram led the team with 28 kills with a .397 attack percentage to tie a school record for single-match kills. She also had 18 digs and two service aces while freshman setter Maggie Griffin posted 50 assists and 18 digs.
In the final play Friday, Schram flew up in the air and flung her arm back, ready to slam the ball down in her signature power kill. But in a gesture that characterized the entire match, Schram gave a slight flick of her wrist and sent a light freeball that fell over the net to the floor for the match-winning point against Iowa.
Saturday would not be so easy for the Spartans as they fell to Minnesota (24-4 overall, 13-3 Big Ten) in three games.
MSU came out swinging and was up by five points halfway through game one. But Minnesota made up the deficit and more as both teams battled for the lead at the end of the match.
When a Minnesota kill brought the score to 28-29 and Golden Gophers fans stood up for game point, the Spartans rallied back tying the game and sent the fans back to their seats twice. Finally, a kill and an MSU receiving error brought the score to 32-30 Minnesota and finished the game. According to Erbe, that game finished the match for the Spartans too.
"We, as a team, never did recover from that," Erbe said. "When they saw we were breaking down in game two, they got their confidence and you could just see it."
During game one, the Spartans ,out hit the Golden Gophers .262 to .255 and had more digs and fewer errors than Minnesota. In comparison, MSU's hitting percentage in both games two and three fell below .180 while the Gophers hit .487 and .519 respectively. They also out blocked and out dug the Spartans and had six service aces in game three alone.
It is frustrating that game one tends to decide the whole match, Griffin said.
"We tend to fight hard and then we tend to mentally break down, and after that there's no telling what is going to happen with us," she said.
The team needs to forget about its goals for the NCAA Tournament and just play, Griffin said.
"If we go out there thinking we have to win, we play worse than if we go out thinking we just have to compete," Griffin said. "If we go out there and just play hard we're a lot better off without feeling the pressure of having to win.
"We're better when we go out and we just play."
