The University of Minnesota volleyball team (12-8, 5-5) lost its fifth straight contest as the Golden Gophers fell to Michigan State (13-9, 4-6) at Jenison Fieldhouse on Saturday, Oct. 20.
Lauren Gibbemeyer (St. Paul, Minn.) led Minnesota hitting .375 (15-3-32), with 15 kills and three blocks. Senior middle blocker Jessy Jones (Naperville, Ill.) also hit .444 (10-2-18) with 10 kills and three blocks. Jones and Gibbemeyer hit .400 (25-5-50) with 25 kills between them.
Brook Dieter (Bloomington, Minn.) and Rachelle Hagerty (Defiance, Ohio) each had nine kills on the night. Junior setter Rachel Hartmann (St. Charles, Ill.) had 40 assists, a match-high five blocks, six digs and three kills. Christine Tan (Safety Harbor, Fla.) led Minnesota with eight digs for the match.
Michigan State jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the first game. With the score at 13-7, Minnesota rattled off four straight points to cut the Spartan lead to 13-11. Michigan State scored the next two points to make it 15-11, and moved out to a 19-15 lead over the Golden Gophers. Minnesota answered with four straight points to tie the game at 19. With the score at 19-16, Gibbemeyer sandwiched a pair of kills around a block that she combined on with Hartmann.
After a timeout, the Spartans came out and scored three straight points to take a 22-19 lead. Gibbemeyer and Hartmann responded with back-to-back kills to make it 22-21. Michigan State pushed the lead out to 26-22 with four of the next five points. Minnesota responded with four straight points to tie it at 26. The teams exchanged the next four points, tying it at 28 on a kill by Jones. However, Michigan State scored the final two points to claim game one.
Michigan State outhit Minnesota .333 to .306 in the game, and had 22 kills to 16 for the Golden Gophers. Minnesota did outblock the Spartans 4.0-to-2.0 in the game. Gibbemeyer led the way with five kills in the game for the Golden Gophers.
In the second game, Minnesota jumped out to a 12-9 lead before the Spartans answered with five of the next seven points to tie it at 14. After a Dieter kill put the golden Gophers up 15-14, Michigan State rattled off four points in a row to take an 18-15 lead.
The Spartans held the three-point margin at 21-18, before Jones delivered a kill and Hartmann followed with a service ace to make it 21-20. Michigan State pushed the lead out to 23-20, and pushed the lead out to 27-23. Gibbemeyer, Hartmann and Hagerty delivered kill to cut the lead to 27-26. Gibbemeyer and Hartmann combined on a block to tie the game at 27.
With the score tied at 28, Gibbemeyer and Hartmann combined on a block to make it game point at 29-28. Michigan State fought it off, but the Golden Gophers moved back ahead 30-29. The Spartans again came back tying the score at 30. Katie Johnson committed an attack error to give Minnesota its third game point, but Johnson followed with a kill to tie the game at 31.
Michigan State fought off a fourth game point to tie it at 32. On the next play Michigan State made a nice play on a Jones attack, but it popped over the next where Hagerty put it down for a kill to make it game point at 33-32. Michigan State fought off a fifth game point, and rattled off the final two points to claim the second game 35-33.
The Spartans outhit the Golden Gophers .460 to .395 in the third game, and had 27 kills to 22 for Minnesota. Jones and Gibbemeyer combined to give Minnesota 13 kills from its middle blocker in the game. The pair hit .571 (13-1-21) in the game, despite the game-two loss.
Michigan State jumped out to a 15-9 lead in game three. Roehrig and Hagerty sandwiched a pair of kills around a combined block from Jones and Hagerty to cut the lead to 15-12. The Spartans expanded their lead to 19-13, before the Golden Gophers answered with three of the next four points to go up 20-16. Michigan State responded with the next four points to go up 24-16.
Minnesota cut the lead to 24-18, but Michigan State moved back ahead 26-19. The Spartans move it to game point at 29-22, and finished off the three-game victory with the next point.
Michigan State was led by Ashley Schatzle who hit .424 (18-4-33) with 18 kills and five digs. Katie Johnson had 15 kills and six digs, while Vanessa King hit .429 (14-2-28) with 14 kills. Setter Lauren O'Reilly finished with 54 assists, seven digs and three blocks, while Miken Trogdon had a match-high 11 digs.
Minnesota will be back in action on Friday, Oct. 26 when it hosts No. 2 Penn State at the Sports Pavilion at 7 p.m. That match will be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis on ESPN 2 on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 11 a.m. (CT).
The Golden Gophers will also host Ohio State on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. That match will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.
