Takeaways from Saturday’s battle between Michigan State and Central Michigan

MSU middle blocker Aubrey O’ Gorman (8), and defensive specialist Grace Danzinger (3) talk together during the Spartans’ 3-0 win over Oakland on Sept. 17/ Photo Credit: Sarah Smith/WDBM

Owen Oszust, General Assignment Reporter
September 19, 2021

EAST LANSING — On Saturday evening, Michigan State’s volleyball had a decisive 3-1 win over the Central Michigan Chippewas at Jenison Field House.

The Spartans have to be consistent with their passes to the setters

In the first set, the Spartans kept making it extremely difficult to get good sets. This led to a lot of freebie opportunities and a lot of frustration from Michigan State. Michigan State kept having to try kills from the back line.

The Spartans finally figured out all of their troubles and looked a lot better with this and started to get into a rhythm. From that point on, Naya Gros and Sarah Franklin were able to continue racking up kills.

If the Spartans can figure out this major problem, they can be a big problem for the Big Ten.

It was Sarah Franklin’s night

Franklin was fantastic at everything she did throughout the entire night. Franklin had 21 kills and a .422 hitting percentage. On top of that, she had 10 digs and two blocks.

It was the redshirt freshman’s night, as everything she did was working. Any slight mistake she made ended up working out one way or another.

Michigan State needs her to step up in a big way once Big Ten conference play starts next week.

When the Spartans get on a roll, they can’t be stopped

In the first set, Michigan State struggled to get anything going. It looked like Central Michigan was going to win the entire match at first. The Spartans weren’t communicating very well, with one ball landing in between four girls that just looked at each other. This included some bad passes to Celia Cullen, who had a tough time setting in the first frame.

Then head coach Cathy George used both of her timeouts and told the team to just calm down and breathe. This led to the Spartans dominating the rest of their sets after dropping the first one.

Michigan State then was able to go on a big run of 5-0 in the second set and make multiple other ones throughout the match. It was a lot of fun to watch them once they got going and started looking more confident.

Follow Owen Oszust on Twitter @Owen_Oszust.