The MSU Volleyball team continues to ride their wave of momentum, sweeping Wisconsin 3-0 and extending its winning streak to four at Jenison Field House Saturday night.
The Spartans (21-7 overall, 9-7 Big Ten) were led by Lauren Wicinski’s 13 kills and five service aces. The slumping Wisconsin Badgers (16-13 overall, 3-7 Big Ten) now have lost their last five and eight of their last 10.
The Spartans have won four straight matches over Big Ten opponents for the first time since 2003.
“The morale’s really high,” head coach Cathy George said. “I think that there were times where we let down a little bit tonight, but I thought we came back and regrouped and you can tell that they have a different look about them and it just keeps growing. This team plays very well together and I expect them to continue in that direction.”
The Spartans started off strong, opening the first match 10-4. However, the Badgers answered on a 10-3 scoring run, pulling ahead 14-13. MSU finished strong with 2 serving aces from Wicinski and won the first set, 25-19.
The second set went the Spartan’s way as well. Strong all-around play helped push the lead to 21-17 after a kill from Alexis Matthews, forcing a Wisconsin timeout. The Badgers didn’t threaten their lead for the rest of the set, and MSU won it 25-20.
The Spartans took a 10-3 lead in the third, highlighted by two kills and a service ace by Wicinski and two blocks and a kill from Dentlinger. However, Wisconsin came back with a 12-6, nearly tying the game at 16-15 and forcing a Michigan State time-out. The Spartans maintained their composure for the rest of the match and won the match 25-20.
Wicinski said the team’s recent performance is a sign of the team coming together.
“It’s always good to sweep a team and then to win, back-to-back at home, so that’s always good,” she said. “And we were just playing really well as a team, and even when things went bad, we stuck together.”
Junior setter Kristen Kelsay said the team is starting to hit its stride at the right time of the season.
“We’ve had some big wins, and I think that helps with momentum, helps with confidence,” she said. “We also know that this season is coming to a close, and we had high goals beginning the year and we set out to achieve those goals. So I think it’s just crunch time and we’re starting to play good volleyball consistently.”
George maintains it’s important that the team takes each game one at a time, and not to get too far ahead of themselves with the winning streak.
“I’ve learned to go one game at a time, and I really don’t look past that because we’ve got a road weekend in front of us,” she said. “We have to play Illinois, who we lost to last time, we lost to Northwestern, so we have to avenge those losses.”
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