Michigan
3-15,1-8Big Ten
Michigan State
13-7,5-4Big Ten
Burke's Big Night Not Enough in Setback at Michigan State
10/18/2023 9:47:00 PM | Volleyball
» Michigan won the first set of the night but fell at Michigan State in four sets (25-20, 26-28, 13-25, 16-25).
» Setter Morgan Burke earned her first career start and tallied a double-double with 25 assists and 17 digs.
» Valentina Vaulet led Michigan with 13 kills while hitting at .346 clip.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- A first set win and a double-double from setter Morgan Burke in her first career start were not enough on Wednesday night (Oct. 18) as the University of Michigan volleyball team fell to Michigan State in four sets (25-20, 26-28, 13-25, 16-25) at the Breslin Center.
Burke recorded her first career double-double (25 assists, 17 digs) in the first start of her career while adding four kills, four block assists and three aces. Valentina Vaulet led the Wolverine offense with 13 kills on 26 attacks -- good for a .346 hitting percentage -- and Serena Nyambio led U-M with five blocks to go with eight kills.
Michigan (3-14, 1-7 Big Ten) took the first set of the night despite Michigan State (15-6, 5-3 Big Ten) taking an early lead. A double block from Burke and Jacque Boney along with kills from Vaulet and Boney allowed the Wolverines to come from behind and take a 7-6 advantage, and U-M extended its lead to 11-7 on a block from Nyambio and Burke. The Spartans stuck around and managed to tie things up at 14 before taking a 15-14 lead into the media timeout, but a kill from Nyambio evened the score once more. A kill from Kendall Murray tied the match at 16 and sparked a 4-0 run for the Wolverines that featured a kill and block from Boney and an ace from Lydia Johnson. MSU came within one at 19-18, but Michigan held off the Spartans for a 25-20 first set win.
Nyambio tallied two kills in the first three points of the second set, which was a back-and-forth battle that saw five lead changes and 16 tied scores. A kill from Vaulet and an MSU error gave the Wolverines the lead at 16-15 -- their first lead since the start of the frame -- before an ace from Boney extended the lead to 17-15. Burke tallied two points in a three-point stretch with a kill and a service ace, but MSU tied the match at 23. Michigan fought off three set points but could not regain an advantage as MSU took the set 28-26.
With the match tied 1-1 coming out of the intermission, the third set was all Michigan State. The Spartans took a 9-1 lead to start the frame and though U-M cut the deficit to four with multiple kills from Murray and Vaulet, MSU retook a commanding lead and used a .394 hitting percentage to cruise to a 25-13 third set win.
Michigan State again took an early lead in the fourth set, but U-M stayed in it with two kills from Boney before rallying with a 4-0 run to tie things up, 12-12, on two aces from Burke and a kill from Vaulet. MSU called timeout with the score tied and took the lead again out of the timeout. Nyambio tied it at 13, but MSU held off the Wolverines for the rest of the match, closing out the set on a 12-2 run for a 25-16 fourth set win and a 3-1 match victory.
The Wolverines will return to the road and play at Northwestern on Saturday (Oct. 21) at 7 p.m. CT with the match streaming live on B1G+.
