No. 19 MSU (21-10, 10-9) released some built up frustration from the Oct. 23 loss en route to dominating the No. 23 UM (17-13, 7-12) at Cliff Keen Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Spartans swept their in-state rival out of the building to hold onto the State Pride flag for a fifth straight year.

MSU swept the match taking the first set 25-20, second set 25-16 and the final set 25-22 to redeem the 3-1 home loss to the Wolverines earlier this season. With the win over the Wolverines, the two teams will split the season series for the sixth time in seven years.

This is also the second consecutive year MSU swept U-M at Cliff Keen Arena. MSU outscored U-M 4-3 on the season, making them the State Pride winner for the fifth straight year. After the Wolverines beat the Spartans the last three times out, senior outside hitter Lauren Wicinski said the team was motivated to get revenge on UM’s senior day.

“We lost to them in the sweet 16 as well and we weren’t going to let them beat us again,” Wicinski said. “We could not take another loss to them.”

The Spartans jumped on the Wolverines early on, taking an early 8-3 lead in the first set, never looking back to lead throughout the rest of the set. Wicinski lead MSU with six kills in the opening set, and finished the game with a team-high 19.

Like the first set, MSU put the pressure on the in-state rival early in the second set with a 9-3 lead.

After a Wolverines 2-1 lead, the Spartans outscored U-M 13-2, dominating the second set.

U-M put pressure on the Spartans in the 3rd set, with the Wolverines getting the sold out crowd to explode when it took a 11-10 lead. The two teams went back-and-forth throughout the set, exchanging the lead six times before the Spartans went on a 7-3 run to complete the sweep.

Head coach Cathy George knew the Wolverines would come strong with senior day emotions and felt the Spartan’s hot early starts helped pave the way for the 3-0 victory.

“They started off with parent night and introducing seniors and all those different things, it can work either way in some cases and they seemed like they gained a lot of emotion off of that and I told our team to just weather whatever storm was coming our way,” George said. “I thought our team answered immediately and really played composed the entire match.”

George also pointed to the team’s “clean” play as one of the big factors, only committing 15 errors to UM’s 21. The 15 errors was down from the team average of nearly 19 errors per game.

The Spartans used their height advantage to dominate in the blocking battle, 14-6. Senior Alexis Mathews lead the team with eight block assists for the Green and White.

Mathews also was impressive with nine kills on the night.

Junior libero Kori Moster lead the Spartans with 12 digs on the night.

MSU will look to keep the momentum as it gets back on the floor Saturday at No. 20 Purdue (19-11, 10-9). The match-up with the Boilermakers will start at 7 p.m. at Holloway Gymnasium in West Lafayette, Ind. and is the final game before the NCAA Tournament.

Kelsay said the win against U-M will help generate some momentum going into the NCAA tournament and help the team continue to progress.

“It’s just good momentum for us but I also think it comes down to just playing solid volleyball because that is what is going to be important,” Kelsay said. “Our goal was to be playing our best volleyball at the end of the year and I think we’ve seen progression from that, we hit a little rough patch but you’re in the Big Ten.”