Oct. 8, 2005
Final Stats
East Lansing, Mich. -
You couldn't have had a more competitive volleyball match than the one Saturday night in East Lansing. The first four games were decided by two points with Illinois closing out a 28-30, 30-28, 31-29, 30-32, 15-12 victory over Michigan State in a hard-fought thriller.
"This was such an emotional battle on both sides of the net," said Illinois Head Coach Don Hardin. "It was a well-played match from two teams who obviously wanted to win. No ball went down easy."
Only twice did either team lead by more than five points in any game and each team took turns making stellar plays to keep their respective teams in it. With the Illinois team battling injuries, the Illini were practicing with a new line-up this week.
The key player in the line-up, true freshman, Lizzie Bazzetta showed confidence in making plays. Even in game four with her team needing a point to stay alive Bazzetta (66 assists) attempted to push a shot into the open court on two, and nearly did so but just hit the net cord. In the points before that Bazzetta teamed with Vicki Brown for a block that had tied the score.
The match featured two of the top six leaders in kills in the nation in Michigan State's Katie Johnson, ranked sixth, and Illinois senior Rachel VanMeter, ranked third. Johnson suffered an elbow injury with her team leading 13-10 in the game one and didn't return until early in game three.
VanMeter, meanwhile led the Illini with 25 kills, including a whopping 10 kills in a back-and-forth game three. Middle blocker Vicki Brown tallied a career-best 19 kills in 30 swings and hit .500. Kayani Turner was also in double figures in kills with 14.
As the match wore on, both teams turned up their game. The most impressive game perhaps was game three, which saw Illinois battle back from a 19-16 deficit to capture the game. TheIllinois serve game was on with nine service aces total (three from Rasa Virsilaite) on the night, including one at game point in game three. Brown had a big swing for a kill at 28 and VanMeter sent a thundering kill that needed a Richter scale to measure that gave the Illini a 30-29 advantage.
With Johnson less than 100 percent, MSU turned to Ashley Schatzle who delivered 24 kills in 54 swings. Schatzle was key in rallying her team in game one tallying four kills and hitting .375.
When Michigan State took a 16-13 lead in game two, Illinois didn't fold its tent. Instead the Illini came fighting back. A Macdonald ace made it 18-17 and Brown sent one down from the middle to make it 19-17. With the score 28-24, MSU came back to tie it at 28-28, but a confident Illinois team wouldn't be denied scoring the final two points to close out the game. The win ended a streak of eight straight games won by an opponent and energized the Illinois team.
"We have been shaken and were getting a little frustrated, but we have tried to talk about running toward winning," Hardin said. "You could certainly see the emotional response and fight in our team. That is probably was is most satisfying - how we continued to compete."
Katie Johnson was back to her form for MSU by game four and finished with 14 digs. To illustrate just how competitive the match was, each team had over 200 attacks for the night, including 85 by VanMeter. For VanMeter that marked the second time in three matches that she took over 80 swings. She now has the fourth and fifth most attacks in a match in school history.
Bazzetta helped set the tone early in game five. After just missing a winner to end game four, Bazzetta came right back with a kill on a dump shot. The point remained alive with two impressive digs from Beth Vrdsky (27 digs). Illinois shot ahead 3-0 and never looked back. Brown and Macdonald teamed with a block that made it 8-4. VanMeter made sure that MSU would not rally in game with a solo block to make it 11-7 and the once loud Jenison Fieldhouse fell silent, except for a handful of Illinois faithful who sprung to their feet in appreciation.
"I am really proud with just how hard we played tonight," Hardin added. "We have been through a lot of adversity and have remained determined to get over the hump. This is just a big win for us."
Illinois improves to 2-4 in the Big Ten, 11-6 overall. Michigan State falls to 2-4 in the conference, 9-7 overall. The Illini are now 2-2 on the road in the league, having won a five-game match at Ohio State on Sept. 25. Illinois has now gone to five games in over a third of its matches and has a 5-1 record in such matches.
Illinois hit .235 for the night, but hit .346 in the decisive game five. The Illini out blocked (11-8) and out served (9 aces to 5) the Spartans.
