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.
   

UP NEXT

• The Scarlet Knights move on to Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 13 with first serve set for 6:00 p.m.

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