No. 10 Volleyball Defeats Michigan State, 3-1 – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 20, 2001
Box Score
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Tenth-ranked Ohio State (17-1 overall, 9-1 Big Ten) women’s volleyball squad defeated Michigan State (11-6, 4-6) in four games Saturday night in front of 948 fans in Jenison Field House. OSU’s 30-24, 24-30, 30-18, 30-26 victory had four Buckeyes reach double-figure kills. Anne Botica (Sr., Windsor, Ontario) had a team-high 17 kills with Stacey Gordon (Fr., Oshawa, Ontario) adding 16, Suzie Stiling (Jr., Glenview, Ill.) 13 and Shelly Draeger (Jr., Milwaukee, Wis.) 12. Michigan State’s Kim Schram (Fr., London, Ontario) had a match-high 20 kills for the Spartans with Jenny Rood (So., Ada, Mich.) adding 11.
Ohio State held an early six-point lead (11-5) in game one. The Spartans closed to within one several times, the last at 17-16, before the Buckeyes scored the next three points from kills by Erin Baker (Sr., Elmhurst, Ill) and Botica and a solo block by Botica to take a 20-16 lead. A Spartan attack error ended the game at 30-24. OSU hit .293 for the game to .103 for Michigan State. Botica connected for seven kills in the game with Gordon adding six.
Game two saw the Spartans break a 1-1 tie with a kill by Angela Morley (Jr., Holland, Mich.) a solo block by Nikki Colson (So., Lincoln, Neb.) and an ace serve by Rood to take a 4-1 lead. Michigan State held the lead winning the game with a Michelle Kopka (Fr., Scarborough, Ontario) kill at 30-24. The Spartans hit .389 in the game to .200 for OSU. Schram collected a team-high seven kills in the game with OSU’s Gordon recording six.
From a 2-2 tie, Ohio State opened a 6-2 lead with a Stiling kill, a block by Baker and Katie Virtue (Jr., St. Charles, Ill.) and two MSU errors. OSU continued to build the lead to win 30-18 with a Baker kill. Ohio State hit .417 for the game to .118 for Michigan State. Botica and Draeger had five kills each for Ohio State with Spartan Schram adding five kills. Game four started with four ties and at 8-8, two kills by Schram and a Buckeye error put MSU ahead 11-8. The Buckeyes scored the next six points to take a 14-11 lead with two Nikki Cisco (Sr., Dublin, Ohio) aces, two kills by Draeger, a Botica kill and a MSU error. Kills by Hartley, Morley and an OSU error tied the game at 14. After ties at 19 and 24, a Spartan error put Ohio State ahead 25-24. Two kills and a block by Stiling put expanded the lead to 28-24. An OSU service error cut the lead to 28-25. A block by Stiling and Virtue set match point at 29-25 but a Spartan kill by Kopka made it 29-26. Stiling’s kill ended the game at 30-26 for the match. OSU hit .324 for the game to .242 for Michigan State. OSU’s Stiling had seven kills in the game with Draeger adding five. MSU’s Schram contributed six kills for the Spartans.
Ohio State hit .309 for the match to .220 for Michigan State. The Buckeyes had a 68-58 margin in kills, outserved the Spartans 7-4 and had a 9-8 blocking advantage. The Spartans had a 46-38 advantage in digs while OSU’s Gordon collected a match-high 11. OSU setter Virtue had 55 assists, four digs and four assist blocks while MSU’s Colson had 45 assists, nine digs and a solo block.
The Buckeyes return home next Friday at 7 p.m. to face sixth-ranked Wisconsin (16-2, 10-0). OSU completes the homestand with a 7 p.m. match Saturday against Northwestern (8-9, 4-6).
