Michigan State University Athletics
MSU Volleyball Hosts No. 21 Illinois, Indiana In Final Homestand
11/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 19, 2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
#22 Michigan State (18-7, 11-7 Big Ten) vs. #21 Illinois (19-7, 12-6 Big Ten) * Friday, Nov. 23, 8 p.m. EST * East Lansing, Mich. * TV: FOX Sports Chicago (tape delayed - airing at 4:00 p.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 25)
vs. Indiana (8-18, 5-13 Big Ten) * Saturday, Nov. 24, 8 p.m. EST * East Lansing, Mich. * Internet Broadcast: www.msuspartans.com
The Michigan State volleyball team closes the regular season with a pair of home matches, battling No. 21 Illinois Friday and Indiana on Saturday.
The Spartans will be looking to continue the momentum gained during a pair of stunning upsets last weekend. MSU won on consecutive nights at No. 9 Ohio State and at No. 14 Penn State, both in four games. Friday's match will be shown on FOX Sports Chicago Sunday, Nov. 25 at 4 p.m. ET. Dave Loane and Terri Zemaitis Boumans will provide the play-by-play and commentary. Saturday's match will also be broadcast live over the internet at the official website of MSU athletics: www.msuspartans.com, with John Kreger handling play-by-play duties.
The Opponents: Illinois has won 11 of its last 13 matches to move up the Big Ten standings and into the national rankings. The Illini are ranked 21st in the Nov. 19 USA Today/AVCA coaches poll, and won a pair of four-game matches last week, at Indiana and vs. Purdue.
Six-foot outside hitter Shadia Haddad leads Illinois with 307 kills (3.45 kpg) and Big Ten best 303 digs (3.40 dpg), and had 16 kills and 21 digs Saturday against Purdue. Lisa Argabright, a 6-5 middle, and 6-1 Lydia Gard form a strong blocking combination, owning 122 and 99 total blocks, respectively, while Argabright has a team-high 313 kills and Gard has added 258.
Illinois won the first meeting against MSU this season, earning a three-game victory Oct. 13 in Champaign.
Indiana has sits in a tie for eighth place in the Big Ten with a 5-13 league record, and is 8-18 overall, after a four-game victory against Purdue on Saturday.
Sophomore Melissa Brewer, a 6-1 middle blocker who was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team last year, leads the Hoosiers with a team-best 95 blocks (0.97 bpg), and ranks second with 309 kills (3.15 kpg) and 203 digs (2.07 dpg). Freshman Christina Archibald is Indiana's other big gun with a team-best 340 kills (3.74 kpg), while 5-10 junior outside hitter Hillary Toivonen owns a team-high 221 digs (2.33 dpg).
Michigan State defeated Indiana in the teams' first meeting this season, earning a four-game victory Oct. 12 in Bloomington.
Series Records: Illinois owns a 33-20 advantage in the series against Michigan State, although the teams have split the season series in each of the past three seasons. Strangely, the road team had won the last seven meetings during the series until Illinois' win earlier this season, giving Illinois a three-match winning streak in Jenison Field House, where they are 14-5 all-time.
Michigan State leads the series with Indiana, 27-23. The Spartans have won the last six matches, and 15 of the last 16. Indiana's only win during the stretch came in Bloomington in 1998 when the Hoosiers earned a 3-1 victory. MSU has won nine straight meetings against the Hoosiers in East Lansing, including a 3-0 sweep last season.
Last Time Vs. Illinois: Michigan State ended a four-match road stretch with a 30-27, 30-26, 30-22 loss Oct. 13 at Illinois.
Senior Erin Hartley led Michigan State with a match-high 14 kills and added 12 digs for a double-double. Junior Kyla Smith collected 13 kills and 10 digs to give MSU two players with a double-double in the same game for just the second time this season. Freshman Kim Schram was the only other Spartan with double-digit kills, pounding 11.
Michigan State attacked well for much of the match, finishing with a .264 hitting percentage, but serving and passing was a concern. Illinois recorded 13 service aces while only committing four service errors, while MSU managed only four aces with 12 errors. Illinois also outblocked Michigan State, which entered the weekend first in the Big Ten in blocks in league matches, 7-3.
Illinois also was effective attacking the ball, finishing with a .301 hitting percentage. The Illini had just 11 attack errors for the match, including only three in each of the last two games.
No Block? What a Shock!: The last time Michigan State faced Illinois, the Spartans entered the weekend leading the Big Ten in blocks per game in league contests. But MSU did not record a single block assist Oct. 13 at Illinois. The Spartans, who did have three solo blocks, had not gone an entire match without a block assist in nearly nine years. The last such occurrence also took place in Huff Hall, when Illinois held Michigan State without a block assist in a three-game win for the Illini on Oct. 24, 1992.
Last Time Vs. Indiana: Michigan State won its second straight road contest Oct. 12 with a 30-16, 26-30, 30-28, 30-20 victory at Indiana.
Senior Erin Hartley led Michigan State with a season-high 22 kills, while hitting .405, and added nine digs. Freshman Kim Schram added 14 kills while junior Angela Morley slammed 11 kills. Sophomore Nikki Colson had 54 assists for MSU, which hit .298 as a team.
Junior Kyla Smith had a team-high 12 digs for Michigan State. Both teams finished with 50 digs, and also were even with 10 blocks each. Indiana was limited to a .164 hitting percentage for the match.
Spartans Stun No. 9 Ohio State: Michigan State shocked No. 9 Ohio State Friday night in St. John Arena, handing the Buckeyes a 30-25, 24-30, 30-23, 30-24 loss. The Spartans snapped the Buckeyes' five-match winning streak while handing Ohio State only its second home loss of the season.
Senior Erin Hartley had 14 kills and added nine digs and four blocks to lead the Spartans, while freshman Kim Schram (13), junior Kyla Smith (11) and junior Angela Morley (10) also had double digit kills. Morley added a team-best nine blocks and hit .526, while sophomore Nikki Colson had 46 assists and eight digs.
The Spartans controlled the tempo of most of the match, hitting .293 and committing only 17 attack errors on 133 swings. In the three games MSU won, the Spartans hit a combined .394 and were amazingly consistent, hitting .393 in game one and .394 in both games three and four. MSU also dominated in blocks, holding a 15-3 advantage.
Ohio State was its own worst enemy at times, committing five service errors in the fifth game, and 15 for the match. Conversely, MSU had only five service errors and six aces. The Buckeyes did outdig Michigan State, 45-44, but hit only .235 with 34 errors.
MSU Thumps No. 14 Penn State: Michigan State capped one of its finest weekends ever by knocking off No. 14 Penn State, 30-21, 32-30, 28-30, 30-28, in front of 4,032 fans on a match televised by FOX Sports Chicago.
Junior Angela Morley had a career-high 21 kills while hitting .576, and added seven blocks to lead MSU. Four other Spartans also had double-digit kills, including senior Erin Hartley with 18, freshman Kim Schram with 16, junior Kyla Smith with 11 and sophomore Jenny Rood with 11. Junior Emily Engel had a team-best and career-high 14 digs, while Smith had 11 to finish with a double-double.
The Spartans hit .326 against Penn State, pounding a season-high 81 kills. MSU also had a 13-10 advantage in blocks, including six from Rood and five from sophomore Nikki Colson, who added 63 assists.
MSU won for the sixth time in its last seven road matches and the seventh time in its last eight contests overall.
Morley Named National Player of the Week: Junior Angela Morley has been named the American Volleyball Coaches Association/Sports Imports Division I Volleyball National Player of the Week. In addition, Morley was named Co-Big Ten Player of the Week, sharing the award with Wisconsin's Sherisa Livingston.
Morley was pivotal in MSU's upsets of No. 9 Ohio State and No. 14 Penn State, totalling 31 kills while hitting .558, and averaging 2.00 blocks per game. Morley started the weekend with 10 kills and a match-high nine blocks in the upset of Ohio State, hitting .526 and committing no attack errors. She then proceeded to establish a career-high with 21 kills while hitting .576, and blocked a match-high seven shots at Penn State, where she also added a season-best four assists. For the week, she averaged two blocks and nearly four kills per game, while committing only two attack errors all weekend.
Morley becomes the first Spartan to earn AVCA National Player of the Week recognition since Jenna Wrobel earned the honor in 1998. Three other times MSU has had the distinction, as Wrobel also won the award in 1996, and Dana Cooke and Val Sterk each received the honor in 1995.
Road Warriors: Last weekend marked the second time in history that the Spartans won both at Penn State and at Ohio State. The only other time MSU managed the feat was in 1995 when MSU won the Big Ten with a 19-1 league record. The Spartans have now won six of their last seven road matches.
The Drive for Five: Head coach Chuck Erbe is within one win of a major coaching milestone, as his next victory will be the 500th of his career. Erbe owns a 499-220-3 career record in 20 seasons, and entering the 2001 season, Erbe ranked 19th on the career victories for active coaches list, while only two of the coaches ahead of him had coached 20 years or less.
Erbe also earned his 100th Big Ten coaching victory Sept. 29 against Iowa. Erbe's league record through his first eight seasons is 109-69.
In addition, the Spartans recorded the 500th victory in program history with a 3-0 win against Idaho Sept. 7. MSU's all-time record is now 512-488-18.
We're Ranked!!: For the first time this season, MSU is ranked in the USA Today/AVCA Top 25 coaches poll. The Spartans moved into the Nov. 19 poll at No. 22, for their first national ranking since Nov. 6, 2000. Michigan State has cracked the Volleyball magazine Top 20 poll for the first time, coming in at No. 20.
No Place Like Home: Michigan State went 1-1 at home during the last homestand, moving its record at Jenison Field House this season to 12-3. The Spartans started the season with nine straight home wins, which was their longest home winning streak since MSU won 14 in a row starting in 1996 and extending to the first two matches of 1997.
Useless Stat of the Week: Michigan State is 10-0 this season against schools that list gold as one of their school colors. The Spartans have won twice each against Minnesota, Iowa and Purdue, and also earned wins against Denver, Western Michigan, Winthrop and Idaho.
You've Gotta Have Hartley: Senior Erin Hartley, a unanimous preseason All-Big Ten selection, has become the seventh player in MSU history to total 1,000 career kills and digs. Hartley leads Michigan State this season in kills (347) and hitting percentage (.327) and ranks second in total blocks (96) and digs (201). Hartley has now recorded 1,443 career kills, ranking her fifth all-time at MSU and 34th in Big Ten history, and ranks in seventh place on MSU's block assists (305) list, eighth in total blocks (371) and 10th in digs (1,064).
Captain Colson: Despite the fact that she's only a sophomore, Nikki Colson, a former Fab 50 player who won three state championships at Lincoln (Neb.) Pius X, was voted a co-captain for the 2001 season by her teammates. Colson was named to the all-tournament team at both of MSU's tournaments this season. Through matches played Nov. 11, Colson ranks tied for 22nd in the nation averaging 12.82 assists per game. Her 1173 assists this season is the eighth best single season total in MSU history.
Schram I Am: Freshman outside hitter Kim Schram has been a key to several Michigan State victories recently, posting double digit kills in each of MSU's 11 Big Ten wins. Schram, who pounded a career-best 20 kills Oct. 19 against Ohio State, ranks second on the squad with 222 kills (3.52 kpg) in conference matches. Schram, who missed much of preseason practice while competing in the Canada Games, made an impressive collegiate debut Sept. 7 against Winthrop, pounding 17 kills. Her 241 kills are the ninth most for a freshman in MSU history, and she ranks third all-time among freshman averaging 3.49 kills per game.
Special K: Junior Kyla Smith has been MSU's breakout performer of the year. Smith played in only 34 games last season, collecting 58 kills, 66 digs and 21 blocks. This season, in 82 games, she has nearly five times more kills than last year with 279, and has more than tripled last season's dig total with a team-high 218. She also leads the team with eight double-doubles this season.
Keep On Blocking In The Free World: Junior middle Angela Morley is a big reason (literally and figuratively) why Michigan State ranked fourth in the nation in blocks last year, averaging 3.36 per game, and ranks 25th this season averaging 2.91 through matches played Nov. 11. As she approaches the end of her junior season, Morley has totalled 399 block assists and 462 total blocks - numbers that are on pace to break the Michigan State records of 494 and 581, respectively, held by All-American Dana Cooke. This season, she leads MSU with 134 total blocks (1.47 bpg).
Rood Awakening: Sophomore Jenny Rood is making the switch from outside hitter to middle this season after a stellar freshman year. Rood, who ranks third on the team in hitting percentage (.286), kills (253) and blocks (72), ranked third on the MSU squad last year with 278 kills, and added 208 digs and 47 blocks. Her kill total was the fifth best total for a freshman in Spartan history.
And The Emmy Goes To: Sophomore defensive specialist Emmy Miller has been a key contributor for Michigan State recently. Miller has played in 58 games this year, including the last 37 in a row, after seeing action in only one game as a freshman. She has averaged 1.88 digs per game over the past six matches.
Step By Steplyk: Freshman defensive specialist Diana Steplyk has provided a spark in recent matches. After seeing action in only four games through the Spartans' first 16 matches, Steplyk has played in every game during the past nine matches. She earned her first start Oct. 24 vs. Michigan, had a career-best nine digs Oct. 26 vs. Purdue and matched that Saturday at Penn State.
Lights, Camera, Ashton: Senior Lisa Ashton, who was elected as a co-captain for the 2001 season, was expected to anchor the Spartans' back row this season after ranking third on the squad with 241 digs last year. Back problems have slowed her down this season, as Ashton has played in only 11 of the team's 83 games.
Coming Up Aces: The Spartans collected a whopping 53 aces during their four matches in the MSU Volleyball Classic Aug. 31-Sept. 1, smashing the previous tournament record of 41. Many of the aces came from junior Emily Engel, who recorded 21 and twice had seven in a match. Engel entered this season with a grand total of four service aces during her first two seasons at MSU, but this year she has 62 service aces, which is the fourth best single-season total in MSU history, and ranked 11th nationally through Nov. 11 averaging 0.76 per game.
We Plead the Fifth: Michigan State was picked to finish fifth by the league's coaches in the Big Ten preseason poll, behind Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Minnesota. If recent history holds true, that should be the worst possible finish for the Spartans. MSU has finished no worse than fifth in the league since a seventh-place finish in 1994.
In addition, senior outside hitter Erin Hartley was a unanimous selection to the preseason All-Big Ten team, as voted by the coaches, for her third straight appearance on the preseason team.
State Pride: Michigan State retained possession of the State Pride flag by beating Michigan Oct. 24 in Jenison Field House. Michigan had won the first meeting between the schools, 3-2, Oct. 3 in Ann Arbor, but MSU's four game victory Wednesday gave the teams a split of the season series. The next tiebreaker in determining who gets the flag is total games won, and since the Spartans won five games in the two matches while Michigan won only four, MSU kept the flag. Michigan State has now earned the flag two straight years and seven of the last nine.
We Will, We Will Block You!: MSU tied a school record by tallying 18 blocks in a three-game match against Idaho. The Spartans have only once before collected 18 blocks in a three-game match - at Iowa Nov. 17, 2000.
POW & MVP: Erin Hartley was named Big Ten Player of the Week after her MVP performance at the Coca-Cola Spartan Invitational Sept. 7-8. Hartley dominated the tournament, leading all players in kills (51), hitting percentage (.536), blocks (14) and digs (36). Hartley hit .500 or better in all three matches, and narrowly missed a triple double against Idaho, collecting 12 kills, nine digs and nine blocks in the three-game match.
Joining Hartley on the all-tournament team from Michigan State was Jenny Rood, who had 13 total blocks and 35 kills in three matches, and sophomore Nikki Colson, who led all players with 138 assists and tied for second with 26 digs.
MVP Part Deux: Kyla Smith was named MVP of the MSU Volleyball Classic Aug. 31-Sept.1. Smith, who was joined on the all-tournament team by Nikki Colson and Erin Hartley, collected a tournament-best 51 digs and ranked second with 61 kills while leading MSU to four victories for the tournament title. She also ranked seventh in the five-team tournament with seven service aces, and was one dig away from having four double-doubles (kills-digs).
Thanks for Coming: Michigan State ranks 26th nationally in volleyball attendance this season, averaging 1,039 fans per game, according to the Nov. 19 attendance poll conducted by the Wisconsin Sports Information office. MSU has ranked in the top 25 nationally in attendance each of the past six years, including last season when the Spartans ranked 22nd nationally averaging 1,052 fans.
Head Coach Chuck Erbe: Chuck Erbe is in his ninth season as head coach at Michigan State, where he has resurrected the Spartan program, guiding MSU to back-to-back Big Ten titles in 1995 and '96, and seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
He has led the Spartans to a 187-99 mark, including an 18-13 record in 2000 and a seventh consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament where the Spartans advanced to the second round. In just his third season at the helm of the MSU program, Erbe led the Spartans to their first-ever Big Ten championship in 1995 with a remarkable 19-1 conference record. Prior to that season, Michigan State, which climbed as high as No. 3 in the national polls, had never finished higher than seventh in the Big Ten.
Erbe was recognized by his peers for his efforts in revitalizing the Spartan program, earning 1995 Big Ten, AVCA District 2 and AVCA National Coach of the Year honors. In addition, he was tabbed as the Volleyball magazine National Coach of the Year.
Erbe, who has a 20-year career record of 497-220-3, spent 12 seasons (1976-77, 1979-88) as the head coach at the University of Southern California where he compiled a record of 310-121-3. He led the Trojans to AIAW National Championships in 1976, 1977 and 1980, and to the NCAA National Championship in 1981, the first year of NCAA competition for women's sports. USC advanced to AIAW or NCAA Tournament play in 11 of his 12 years as head coach.
Internationally, Erbe led the United States women's team in the 1981 World University Games in Bucharest, Romania. In 1979, he served as an assistant coach for the women's U.S. National Team. Erbe headed the U.S. women's team at the 1974 World Volleyball Championships in Mexico City, and led the United States to back-to-back titles in the Pacific Rim Junior Championships in 1975 and 1976.
Erbe began his coaching career in 1973 at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., where he helped guide the team to a perfect 20-0 record and the National High School Volleyball Championship.
Parking Problems: Fans and media members attending Michigan State home volleyball matches this season are reminded that due to construction at Jenison Field House, parking at the Field House is limited. Please bear with the MSU athletic department during its improvements to its facilities, and use alternate parking areas near the Field House if necessary.
