EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – After only winning 11 matches last season, Michigan State University made a change in leadership for their volleyball program. In February, they hired Leah Johnson and the culture shift for a winning program started that day.
Hosting the Auto Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational at the Breslin Center, Johnson already has almost a quarter of the wins from last year starting off 3-0. On Friday, MSU fought back from being down 2-0 for a 3-2 win over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, 23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-11. They followed what with two wins on Saturday over Eastern Michigan, 3-2, and Fairfield, 3-0.
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Johnson said after their win over Louisiana, “That was the Spartan fight being down 0-2 as I never questioned you and it was like practice where you check in, stay the course, and next ball and that’s what happened (pointing at the scoreboard). And we are going to keep getting better. This is just the start.”
In the season opening win over Louisiana in set three, the Ragin’ Cajuns tied the set at 23 but MSU’s Zoe Nunez had a service ace for the lead and then a Maradith O’Gorman kill ended the set for the first win. It was almost the same scenario in set four as MSU held a 23-22 lead after Louisiana had just scored the previous four points to pull within one. Aliyah Moore posted a kill for the two-point advantage and then a Louisiana attack error ended the set as the Spartans tied the match at two sets a piece
Tied at five in the final set, MSU scored five of the next six points for a 10-6 lead. Louisiana came within two, 10-8, but that is as close as they would come as the Spartans took the match, 15-11.
Saturday brought another exciting match in the second game of the season as MSU pulled out the 3-2 win over Eastern Michigan, 25-14, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25, and 15-8. MSU then handled Fairfield, 25-15, 25-21, 25-13, to move to 3-0 on the year.
Next weekend the Spartans will head to Maryland for the Kristen Dickmann Invitational facing Albany, Navy, and Virginia Commonwealth.
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