Michigan State kept its foot on the gas Saturday afternoon, finishing a 2-0 opening weekend with a straight-set sweep of LIU inside the Breslin Center.
The Spartans are now 2-0 on the season, while LIU drops to 0-2. And this one was never really in doubt.
MSU controlled the match from the first set on, outhitting the Sharks .400 and holding LIU to -.014. The edge showed up everywhere: kills, digs, blocks and aces all tilted hard in Michigan State’s favor.
The Spartans finished with 31 kills to LIU’s 21, outdug the Sharks 20-19, dominated at the net with an 11-2 block advantage and piled up 13 service aces. That ace total tied for the fifth-most in a three-set match in program history.
Junior opposite Hayley Ogden was the headliner again. She put together a blistering .727 hitting percentage, going for eight kills on 11 swings without an error.
That mark tied Emma Monks’ record for the highest single-match hitting percentage by a Spartan inside the Breslin Center. Ogden also led MSU with six total blocks and added two aces.
The production kept spreading around her. Senior outside hitter Karolina Staniszewska had six kills, freshman outside hitter Madi Andrews finished with five, and sophomore outside hitter Bianca Mumcular chipped in four in her season debut. Senior libero Lia Schneider led the back row with five digs.
Setting duties were split after the first 1.5 sets. Redshirt sophomore Malayah Long opened there and finished with a team-high 16 assists before redshirt freshman Kalea Norton took over for the rest of the match. Norton made her career debut with 10 assists and led the Spartans with three service aces.
Eight Spartans got in on the ace barrage. Norton had three, Schneider two, Mumcular two and Ogden two.
Staniszewska, Long, and junior middle blockers Breccan Scheck and Carmen Waye each added one. Scheck also contributed five blocks.
Michigan State set the tone early in the opener. After a 3-3 start, Ogden served back-to-back aces, then Zora Hardison and Staniszewska followed with kills to push MSU ahead 7-3.
LIU got within three, but the Spartans answered with a 4-0 run capped by a Schneider ace to force a timeout at 12-5. Schneider added another ace coming out of the break, and after an LIU attack error and a block from Waye and Ogden, MSU was sitting on a 15-7 lead at the media timeout.
Waye later delivered a kill and an ace, then the Sharks handed over two attack errors as the Spartans built a 22-10 cushion. LIU trimmed the margin a bit, but a service error and a Mumcular kill closed the set 25-13.
The second set followed a similar script. LIU called timeout after MSU jumped to an 8-3 lead, and the Spartans kept extending it.
By the media timeout, they were up 15-7 behind kills from Staniszewska, Scheck and Mumcular, plus a Long ace. Out of the break, MSU ripped off three straight points with a Hardison-Ogden block and back-to-back Ogden kills.
Another Ogden kill and a Shark error pushed LIU into another timeout at 20-8. The Sharks put together a 3-0 run late, but an attack error got MSU to set point, and a Norton ace finished it 25-14.
Michigan State hit .476 in the frame, with 11 kills on 21 swings and only one error.
The third set was even more one-sided. MSU opened with a 6-0 burst that sent LIU to timeout right away, then stretched it to 8-0 with a Scheck-Mumcular block and a Mumcular kill out of the break.
The Spartans kept rolling, building a 15-1 lead at the media timeout behind a 7-0 run finished by a Mumcular ace. LIU managed a four-point swing later to cut into the margin, but Scheck put MSU on match point at 24-11, and Andrews ended it with a kill for the 25-11 finish.
Next up, Michigan State heads to Ann Arbor for the inaugural Big Ten/SEC Challenge Week inside Michigan’s Crisler Center. The Spartans face LSU on Sept. 1 at 4:30 p.m. and South Carolina on Sept. 2 at 4 p.m. The LSU match will air nationally on Big Ten Network, while the South Carolina match will stream on B1G+.
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