Michigan Volleyball wins 5th straight over MSU; retains State Pride Flag Trophy

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on November 20th, 2019 at 10:20 PM

On the banks of the red cedar, there's a school that is known to those who went there (bro). Their specialty is blowing leads at home. 

#23 Michigan traveled to East Lansing tonight to take on MSU in search of another season sweep. 

The Wolverines won the first set 25-19. It was a first set that was back and forth until Michigan went on an incredible 9-1 run to get the win and briefly silence the large crowd at Jenison Field House.

Michigan started out set two in a 5-1 hole but scored 8 straight to take a 9-5 lead. However MSU responded and the set was a tight one the rest of the way with MSU prevailing 26-24.

MSU used a late 8-4 run to win the 3rd set 25-23 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Wolverines got back on track and dominated the fourth set 25-15 to clinch the State of Michigan Pride Flag Trophy for a 4th straight season regardless of the result of the decisive 5th set. But a WIN on the road is the way to clinch a trophy.

Michigan built up a 14-12 lead needing just one point to win it but MSU would not go away. They fought off multiple match points to get it to 15-15 but Michigan got the final two for the win on an MSU service error and a kill by freshman star May Pertofsky. Pertofsky led Michigan with 18 kills tonight. 

Michigan (19-8, 12-5 B1G) completed the comeback on the road, beating Michigan State 3-2.

It's the 5th straight win over the Spartans, the most in the history of the rivalry by the Wolverines.

Michigan also hangs on to the State of Michigan Pride Flag Trophy for a 4th straight year. The trophy goes back to the 1990 and Michigan leads the trophy series 16-13-1.

Wolverine Devotee

November 21st, 2019 at 8:30 AM ^

No it goes by matches. Then there is a tiebreaker that’s used if the teams split the series 1-1: sets and then points if that’s still tied. 

We clinched the trophy just winning a second set yesterday because if we lost set 3 we would’ve had the tiebreaker 5-4. 

Several years ago all of the tiebreakers couldn’t settle it so the trophy was kept an equal amount of days by each team.