Volleyball Unable To Power Past Spartans

Friday, November 12

East Lansing, Mich.

7:30 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

8-18,0-15Big Ten

Michigan State

11-13,4-11Big Ten

Rutgers

Michigan St.

Photo by: Ariel Fox

Nov 12 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score - Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Rutgers volleyball found themselves battling back in each set against Michigan State, but the host Spartans maintained the lead in all three frames for a 26-24, 25-20, 25-19 win closing out the season series on Friday night at Jenison Field House.

STANDOUT STATS

Fifth-year senior Beka Kojadinovic led the offense hitting .444 on the night committing only one attack error in her 18 attempts with senior Inna Balyko adding 25 assists.
Sophomore Madyson Chitty led RU with 10 digs, while redshirt senior Shealyn McNamara logged a game-high six rejections.

KEY MOMENTS

Set 1 (24-26) | The Scarlet Knights fought their way back to take its first lead of the night at 23-22. The swing from Anastasiia Maksimova that gave RU the lead helped overcome a four-point deficit and capped a 7-2 run by the Scarlet Knights. While the Spartans regained the lead, a blast from Shealyn McNamara tied the frame up at 24-24 before MSU captured the next two points for the win.
Set 2 (20-25) | Michigan State took another early lead that Rutgers would take midway thru. The Spartans opened with a 5-1 edge, but Rutgers battled back using a 6-2 run ending with an ace from Maksimova to go in front 12-11. Michigan State responded outscoring RU 8-2 for its largest lead of the frame at 20-15. Two kills from McNamara down the stretch helped to close the gap to within three for the Scarlet Knights put ultimately it was the Spartans staying in front for the 2-0 lead.
Set 3 (19-25) | The hosts generated an eight-point lead at 20-12, but the Scarlet Knights refused to go away. Rutgers rattled off six straight and made it a two-point set trailing 20-18. During the surge, McNamara contributed a pair of blocks and later used a swing that saw RU down 22-19. The Spartans, however, scored the next three to win the match.

HIGHLIGHTS

KNIGHT NOTES

With her appearance against the Spartans, Kamila Cieslik played her 129^th game as a Scarlet Knight tying for the rally-era leader in matches played.
With her six block assists, Shealyn McNamara moved into fifth place on the rally-era season leaders list with 92 stops in her two seasons as a Scarlet Knight. She needs three more to pass Jasmine Stackhouse (2016) for fourth, four more to surpass Lauren Cloyd (2016) for third and 14 to move up to second all-time past Mikaela Matthews (2014).
McNamara's six blocks also moved her into sole possession of third on the rally-era season list in total blocks with 107. She needs six to move into second past Mikaela Matthews (2014) and 14 more rejections surpass Jasmine Stackhouse (2018) as the rally-era season leader.

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