Two days, two games, and two wins for MSU Volleyball. The No. 21 MSU volleyball team took the win against the University of Maryland in four sets Saturday, right after their win against No. 14 Ohio State. The Spartans are now 4-2 for Big Ten conference play and 15-2 for their overall season.
UMD’s volleyball program has been growing and progressively getting better with their new coach, Steve Aird. On Friday UMD took the University of Michigan to four sets, and it was very evident during the first set that they came to play. The Spartans adjusted very well to the intensity of UMD’s play and held the Terps to a negative 17.4 percent success rate after the first set.
MSU didn’t seem like the same team that played OSU the previous night. They came out really strong in the second set, but Maryland pulled it together to overtake the Spartans resulting 9 ties, and three lead changes. The Terps came out on top, beating MSU by three points, 23-25.
The Spartans seemed to have trouble stopping UMD’s Gia Milana. Milana had 21 kills and 11 digs by the end of the night, 9 kills in the second set alone. From all 21 kills, she got 21 points for the Terps, the leading scorer of the night.
“I thought Maryland played very well, I thought we were a little less sharp then we were last night for sure. We didn’t play as decisively as we need to, we weren’t as clean as we would like to be in a lot of things,” coach Cathy George said. “I think our service game was off, it’s good to know we can win a game without our serving game being on, that’s important for us.”
Senior opposite hitter, Alyssa Fitterer had another successful game, this time against the Terps. Fitterer had 9 kills, 2 digs, 2 services aces and 5 block assists which resulted in 13.5 points. Redshirt junior outside hitter, Autumn Bailey received a double-double against the Terps with 10.5 points and 10 digs.
The junior setter, Rachel Minarick has now had two successful weekends in a row. Minarick got more assists against UMD, than the high intensity match against OSU. She had 8 kills, 8 digs, and 44 assists and 4.5 points by the end of the night.
The senior outside hitter, Chloe Reinig was a leader of the court at several aspects for the Spartans. Reinig had a totally different role against OSU as her presence was heavily received in the blocking component of the game. She had 6 block assists, 2 digs, and 5 kills that resulted in earning 8 points that night. Reinig was the lead scorer and she had the most kills against the Terps (16.5 points and 14 kills).
After these two back to back wins, MSU will go on to continue their conference play against Illinois on Wednesday.
