Michigan State defeats Loyola Chicago to cap off a three-win weekend at Kathy DeBoer Invitational

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The Michigan State volleyball team defeated Loyola Chicago in four sets on Sunday afternoon, capping off a stretch of three wins in three days during the Kathy DeBoer Invitational at the Breslin Center.

The Spartans won the first set 25-19 before the Ramblers responded with a 25-22 win in set two. MSU took the third set 25-20 and the fourth set came right down to the wire, with a kill by Nil Okur securing a 25-23 set win and the Spartan victory.

Akasha Anderson led Michigan State’s offensive attack, finishing the game with 17 kills.

“What I loved about Akasha tonight was that she started the match and they had lined her up pretty well,” said head coach Leah Johnson. “We kept talking about that chess match, right? What’s the counterstrategy? What can you do next? And if you noticed, later as the match went on, she started using kind of a throw into the middle of the court and scored three or four times off that when in set one and two those were blocked because she was trying to swing low seam. So, I loved how she counter attacked and started adding some different tools into the game.”

This was the final game of the Kathy DeBeor Invitational, a three-night invite that opened up the home schedule for Michigan State. The Spartans also defeated Western Kentucky 3-1 on Friday night and Marist 3-0 on Saturday.

“Any time you can start with wins on your home court that’s going to bode well for the season,” said Johnson. “It’s really important to me that we protect the green and white when we’re here at home and I thought the team rallied around each other. We used a lot of different people and to still come up successful and not get rattled by all the change I thought was positive.”

Michigan State will return to the court for a home match on Wednesday against Western Michigan.

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