EAST LANSING – Following an incredible win against No. 16 Penn State, Michigan State returned to the Breslin Center looking to keep the momentum rolling. They did just that against the visiting Maryland Terrapins, taking the victory in a 3-0 match sweep.
While Maryland went up 4-1 early and took advantage of a few MSU mistakes, the Spartans quickly turned the first set around. Even though MSU started off a little rusty, the script flipped in an instant, as fifth year middle blocker Amani McArthur made electric plays throughout the contest. She totaled eight kills and six blocks for the match.
“Both our middles, between the two of them, had one error,” said Michigan State head coach Leah Johnson. “[McArthur] was a point machine, she had six blocks, just phenomenal. Zuzanna was elite as well tonight.”
The Terrapins did not help themselves either, as they amounted seven attacking errors and two service errors, leading to an MSU 10-2 run at one point, culminating in a dominant Michigan State set win at 25-14.
In similar fashion to the first set, Maryland came out hot in the second. With some impressive play in the beginning, the Terps jumped out to a 6-1 lead against a cold Michigan State. But once again, the Spartans locked in to go on a 11-1 run to take full control of the set. While freshman outside hitter Taylah Holdem and freshman middle blocker Zuzanna Kulig made their presence felt with some fantastic kills, service aces is where the Spartans recorded a solid amount of their points. Even though they only average 1.5 per set on the season, MSU converted on six service aces in the period. While Maryland got off the mat following MSU’s massive run, Michigan State came out with the second set win at 25-18.
“I think our serving, to start with, put them out of system,” said Johnson. “I thought we served the ball really well and that was a big reason why we were able to be successful.”
Michigan State went into the third set looking to close the match out, but Maryland wasn’t quite finished yet. Instead of going down easy, Maryland made the period a back and forth battle throughout. That lasted until the Spartans started to pull away down the stretch after being tied at 20. While the Terps made it tough, the match was capped off by a hard fought point and kill by junior outside hitter Aliyah Moore. This resulted in a 25-22 set win and a 3-0 match victory.
“I will say they came in a little loose early in the week and I challenged them right away with some stats and some different objectives and they responded to that,” said Johnson. “We still gotta clean up a lot of points but we’re better than we were two weeks ago, we’re better than we were four weeks ago.”
Michigan State climbs above .500 in conference play, going 7-6 against B1G opponents and 15-9 overall. Maryland meanwhile falls to 15-10 overall and 5-8 in conference.
The Spartans will play host to the Iowa Hawkeyes for their next matchup on Saturday, Nov. 4, with gametime set for 7:00 p.m. E.T.
