MSU volleyball falls to Illinois in five-set match

EAST LANSING — Michigan State volleyball lost a hard-fought match against Illinois in its second Big Ten matchup of the weekend at the Breslin Center. 

This was the Spartans first game to go to five sets at home this season, with their last being a victory against Duke in North Carolina on September 20.  

Outside hitter Taylor Preston spearheaded the team’s offense leading with 15 kills out of the Spartans 41 overall. Setter Julia Bishop led the team with 30 assists. 

“I think [Bishop’s] leadership is elite, she’s consistent in her fight and game management, I think she’s locating the ball really well,” coach Leah Johnson said. “We just continue to lean on her, obviously at the end of the game I could have put someone in to block or to defend but it’s hard when I feel Julia has earned the moment.”

MSU came firing out of the gate, going up 5-0 early and forcing the Fighting Illini to take both of their timeouts early. Taylor Preston led the offense with three kills in Michigan State’s 25-15 set one win. Illinois didn’t help its case with 11 attacking errors and six service errors.  

The Spartans failed to carry its momentum into the second set, dropping it 19-25 and evening the match thus far.  

In the third and fourth set, the two teams continued to play neck-and-neck. Michigan State took the third 25-20 with  Illinois winning the fourth 25-23, forcing a fifth set between the two teams.

Illinois was the aggressor in the deciding set, and MSU fell by a score of 8-15. 

“At the end of the day, my big takeaways are I think we are still serving the ball really well,” Johnson said. “Our blocks have the ability to shut down some things that will be important. But we have to earn our own points faster with kills so we are going to spend the next week working on that since Nebraska is one of the best defensive teams as well.”

The Spartans are still looking for a Big 10 win and will look to bounce back against Nebraska for homecoming weekend in East Lansing next Saturday at 6 p.m.

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