Oct. 7, 2011
Michigan State 3, Wisconsin 1
Jenison Field House • East Lansing, Mich. | |
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| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Wisconsin
| 25 | 23 | 34 | 19 | -- | Michigan State
| 27 | 25 | 32 | 25 | -- | | | | Stats Leaders
| | WIS | | MSU | | Thomas - 16 | Kills | Rathje - 26 | | Thomas - 26 | Assists | Kelsay - 44 | | Mitchell - .478 | Hit %
| Abron - .444 | | Hickey/Thomas - 15 | Digs | Zlabis - 18 | | Mitchell - 5 | Blocks | Zlabis/Mathews - 5 | | Hickey - 2 | Aces | Zlabis/Moster - 3 | | Stats Comparison
| WIS | MSU | | Kills | 63 | 60 | | Hitting Pct. | .218 | .230 | | Assists | 55 | 54 | | Service Aces | 3 | 8 | | Digs | 58 | 68 | | Total Blocks | 10.0 | 11.0 | | |
• Box Score | Box Score 
MADISON, Wis. -- Despite overcoming 20 tie scores in the third set to force a fourth set, the Wisconsin volleyball team fell to Michigan State 3-1 on Friday night at Jenison Fieldhouse on the MSU campus.
The Spartans (14-3, 3-2 Big Ten) beat the Badgers 27-25, 25-23, 32-34, 25-19. Wisconsin falls to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in the Big Ten Conference.
| Fast Facts | | • UW's 34-point third set is a new record | | • Thomas records first career triple-double | | • Badgers outkill Spartans behind Thomas, Mitchell | |
Wisconsin's 34 points scored in the third frame set the school record for the highest number of points scored under 25-point scoring.
Freshman Courtney Thomas set new career-highs in kills (16) and digs (15) and had 26 assists to become the fourth Badger player in program history to record a triple-double. She is also the second player to get a triple-double this season, as senior Janelle Gabrielsen recorded one at Duke on Aug. 27.
Juniors Alexis Mitchell and Mary Ording set season-highs in kills, finishing with 13 and eight, respectively. Mitchell also led the team in hitting percentage for the fourth time this season, hitting .478 (13 kills - 2 errors - 23 attempts).
The Spartans were led by seniors Jenilee Rathje and Kendra Abron, who put away 26 and 16 kills, respectively.
Sophomore Annemarie Hickey shared the Badgers' lead in digs with 15 for her 16th consecutive match with more than 10 saves. Despite that, Michigan State outdug Wisconsin 68-58 as MSU had three players in double-figure digs, led by 18 from Becca Zlabis.
Although the Spartans also outblocked the Badgers 11-10, Wisconsin finished with three more kills. Mitchell led the Badgers with five blocks.
The Badgers also kept Michigan State, which had the highest hitting percentage in the Big Ten coming into Friday's match at .326, to a .230 (60 kills - 25 errors - 152 attempts) as a team which, despite the loss, pleased head coach Pete Waite.
"We were leading them in offensive hitting percentage (until the last set), and I think that says a lot about our offense and what they were doing," he said.
Although Wisconsin fell into a 3-0 hole to open the match and didn't score on a kill until its fifth point, the Badgers rallied to force extra points for only the second time this season, and the first time in the opening set. After a 5-0 Michigan State run, Wisconsin trailed 20-14 for MSU's biggest lead of the match thus far until the Badgers went on a 9-3 run to tie things up at 23. The Badgers served for set point twice (24-23 and 25-24) but the Spartans used a 3-0 run late in the first set to win 27-25.
Despite the opening-frame loss, Wisconsin hit .302 (16-3-43) as a team while keeping Michigan State to a set-low .195 hitting percentage (16-8-41).
The second set went in a similar fashion for the Badgers, who started out the frame by scoring the first two points and using a 4-0 run to tie the score at 9-9 on two straight service aces from Hickey. Although Michigan State was slowly able to pull away after going up 18-15, Wisconsin cut the Spartans' lead to two points (23-21) and forced three MSU set points at the end of the frame before losing 25-23.
Wisconsin and Michigan State traded the first three points of the longest third set in recent program history. The Badgers then went on a 4-0 run for their biggest lead of the entire match and the largest margin for both teams in the third frame at 10-7. Wisconsin kept the lead until the score was tied at 14, when MSU's Rathje put down one of her team-high 26 kills to give the Spartans the advantage through five more tie scores.
In all, UW and MSU tied the set 20 times, including for each point from 20 to 30.
After getting the lead back on a kill from Mitchell and Gabrielsen at 23-22, MSU took it again at 27-26 from a Zlabis service ace. Then freshman Ellen Chapman scored and the Badgers took advantage of one of the Spartans' 10 errors to take the lead for good and win the set 34-32.
"That's some great volleyball no matter who wins it, but I'm sure glad we did," said Waite referring to the marathon of a third set. "That's a lot of staying power, especially for our group - just to not give up those set points and just lay down and finish it up.
"They battled to the win, so I was proud of them for that."
The score was only tied twice at the beginning of the fourth set, as Michigan State used a 6-3 run in the middle of the frame to go up 15-9 for its largest lead of the match. Although the Badgers forced an MSU timeout when they scored two straight to cut its lead to 23-19, it wasn't enough as Michigan State won the fourth set 25-19 to win the match.
Wisconsin completes its four-match road stand in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday night when it takes on No. 18 Michigan at 6 p.m.
