Michigan State University Athletics
Wrapping Up The 2004 Volleyball Season
12/8/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Dec. 8, 2004
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
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TOUGH WAY TO END - For the second consecutive year, Michigan State volleyball (12-16, 7-13 Big Ten) finished its season with a 1-3 record in the last four matches. The Spartans fell to No. 4 Penn State, 3-0, on Nov. 26 before dropping the season finale, 3-0, to No. 8 Ohio State.
RETIREMENT - On Dec. 2, head coach Chuck Erbe announced his retirement after 12 years at the helm of the Spartan program. In that time, he compiled a 244-140 record at State, including a 140-100 mark in the Big Ten. He ends his coaching career with a 554-261-3 record in 24 years of collegiate coaching.
SO WHO'S IN CHARGE NOW? - Daune Rensing, who has been with the Spartan program for four seasons, was named interim head coach on Dec. 3. Michigan State Athletics Director Ron Mason said, "I have confidence that Daune Rensing and (assistant coach) Ed Tolentino can work with our student-athletes during this transition period. Our primary goal is to have a timely and thorough search process which will culminate in the hiring of a head coach."
AVCA ALL-REGION HONORS - Senior Kim Schram earned AVCA All-Mideast Region honors for the second consecutive year. She was a 2003 AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honoree.
ALL-BIG TEN HONOREES - Senior Kim Schram was a unanimous First-Team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches, marking the second year she's been honored as a first-team choice. Freshman Maggie Griffin was named to the Big Ten's All-Freshman Team as the honors were announced on Nov. 30.
SPARTANS HONORED AT BANQUET - State honored its own in its annual end-of-season banquet on Nov. 28. Diana Steplyk was given the Andrea DeLuca Spirit Award, while Kim Schram was voted MVP by her teammates. Meghan Schoen posted a .285 hitting percent to win the highest hitting efficiency award, and Megan Wallin and Brooke Langston received the Captains' Award. Michelle Kopka earned the academic award.
SENIOR SALUTE - State's matches against Penn State and Ohio State marked the last for the 2004 seniors - Michelle Kopka, Kim Schram and Diana Steplyk. The three close out their careers with a combined four-year record of 73-48, and were part of Spartan squads that advanced to the NCAA Regional Semifinal (2002) and NCAA Second Round (2001).
NOT NCAA BOUND - The second longest NCAA Tournament appearance streak in the Big Ten was snapped this season when MSU did not make the tournament for the first time in 11 years, and just the second time in former head coach Chuck Erbe's 12 years at MSU.
CAPTAINS - Brooke Langston and Megan Wallin served as the Spartans' 2004 captains.
OFF TO A GOOD START - Up to Nov. 20 at Wisconsin, a first-game win was a harbinger of a match victory for MSU. Until the match with the Badgers, in which MSU won game one but lost the match, State had a 9-0 record in matches in which it won the first game. Five of those game one wins came in 3-0 match sweeps for the Spartans.
IMPROVEMENT IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE BIG TEN - After picking up just two wins in the first half of the Big Ten season, State finished the second half of the Big Ten at 5-5. Michigan State out-hit its opponents, 17.00-16.39 kills per game and .265-.255. Additionally, the Spartans have posted half a block more than their opponents (2.74-2.39) and a dig more per game (15.87-14.83) in the final half of the league season.
BACK ON THE BLOCKING TRACK - State posted 10.0 team blocks in its 3-0 win at Northwestern (Nov. 19) and 12.0 at Wisconsin (Nov. 20), marking the fifth and sixth times in MSU's last eight matches the Spartans hit double-figure blocks totals. The Spartans had a five-match streak of at least 10.0 team blocks that lasted from Oct. 23-Nov. 6, and was snapped with just six blocks against Iowa on Nov. 12.
SCHRAM TIES SCHOOL RECORD - Kim Schram averaged 7.17 kills and 4.0 digs per game in State's 1-1 weekend against Iowa and No. 5 Minnesota. She had 43 kills and 24 digs in the six games on the weekend, and her 28 kills against Iowa on Nov. 12 tied a school record for kills in a three-game match.
NEED ASSISTANCE WITH THAT? - Freshman setter Maggie Griffin had 1,324 assists on the season, tops in the MSU all-time freshman records book. She topped Vicki Basil's (1997) record of 1,297. In MSU single-season records, Griffin is eighth.
BIG DIGS - Junior libero Marley Bellwood posted at least 15 digs in seven matches, dating from Oct. 2-Nov. 12, including a career-best 27 against No. 21 Illinois (Oct. 29). Bellwood had 20 against both Purdue (Nov. 5) and Indiana (Nov. 6); 19 each against Northwestern (Oct. 23) and Michigan (Oct. 27); and 17 against Iowa (Nov. 12) and Wisconsin (Oct. 22).
ROAD WEARY - State finished the year 3-8 in road games, with wins at Wichita State, Indiana and Northwestern.
JOHNSON SETS CAREER BEST - Freshman Katie Johnson hit .571 with eight kills and no errors on 14 total attacks at Northwestern on Nov. 19, a career-best attack percentage.
QUALITY ATTACKS - Kim Schram and Brooke Langston both hit better than .333 in State's 1-1 weekend against Iowa and Minnesota (Nov. 12-13), as Schram hit .372 with 7.17 kills per game (43) and Langston hit .333 with 2.33 kills per game (14).
20 KILLS AND COUNTING - Senior Kim Schram had 25 career 20-kill matches, including eight this season. She ranks third on the all-time 20-kill match list; five from second (Veronica Morales, 1993-97). Jenna Wrobel (1995-98) holds the record at 54.
GRIFFIN HITS 50 - Freshman setter Maggie Griffin has posted at least 50 assists in 13 of State's 26 matches this season, including a career-best 68 against Purdue (Oct. 2). She had 64 against Northwestern (Oct. 23) and 57 against Michigan (Oct. 27).
BELLWOOD SETS RECORD - Junior libero Marley Bellwood set a school record for digs per game with an average of 4.29 in 2004. The standing MSU record for digs per game was 3.68, set by Jill Krumm in 1989, when she posted 409 digs in 111 games. Bellwood finished the season at 395 digs, good for fourth place all-time, in 92 games played this season.
AAUGH! - Service errors plagued MSU this season, as the Spartans had 263 on the season, an average of 2.58 per game. State had 15 in its 3-2 win against Michigan (Oct. 27).
ONE OF FOUR - With 1,758 kills throughout her three-plus seasons, senior Kim Schram is one of just four Spartans in MSU history to post 1,525 or more career kills. Schram broke into the top three in career kills (1,669) Friday, Nov. 12 against Iowa. Jenna Wrobel (1995-98) holds the school record for kills at 2,292, while Veronica Morales (1994-97) is second at 2,006.
FAN PRESENCE - MSU averaged an attendance of 1,810 per match--23,533 total--in Jenison Field House this season, including a season-high of 3,517 on Oct. 27 against Michigan. In its 10 Big Ten matches, State had a total attendance of 20,710, and averages 2,071 fans.
WALLIN SETS SCHOOL RECORD - Junior middle Megan Wallin set a school record against St. John's, as she posted 13 kills and no errors on 14 attacks on Sept. 4. Wallin's attack percentage of .929 bettered the former single-match record of .923 (12-0-13) by Corie Richard against Maryland on Sept. 15, 1995.
BUILDING BLOCKS - Freshman Meghan Schoen led the Spartans' blocking efforts with a team-best 84 blocks on the season, and 71 in conference play. She is ranked eighth all-time in the freshman record book, and is six (76) in block assists.
JENISON, SWEET JENISON - State had an 8-5 record in matches held in Jenison Field House this season, with five of those wins coming in a three-game set. MSU has an 122-48 record in the facility since 1993. In State's 13 matches at home this year, the Spartans average 16.70 kills per game and are hitting .281. Additionally, they average 15,58 assists, 2.89 blocks, 14.21 digs and 1.27 service aces per game.
SCHRAM CARRIES THE BULK - Kim Schram averaged 5.08 kills per game in Big Ten matches, an MSU best. In 20 matches, she had 366 kills to go along with 162 digs and 50 blocks.
DOUBLE-DOUBLES (AND NO, YOU'RE NOT AT IN-N-OUT BURGER) - Five Spartans posted double-doubles on the season, led by Kim Schram`s nine (kills-digs) and Maggie Griffin's (assists-digs) eight. Katie Johnson and Michelle Kopka each posted 10-plus digs and kills in two matches, while Brooke Langston did so in one match.
ROUGH GAME - State's 30-12 loss in the fourth game at Michigan marked the Spartans' worst single-game loss since the NCAA switched to rally scoring in the 2001 season. The previous low was a 30-14 loss, which had happened twice since 2001; against No. 1 USC in the 2002 NCAA Tournament and earlier this season against then-No. 6 Washington.
550 REACHED - Former head coach Chuck Erbe reached his 550th career victory with State's 3-2 win against Michigan on Oct. 27. At the start of the season, Erbe's .684 career win percentage (542-245-3) was 27th all-time in the NCAA, while his wins total of 542 was 14th all-time.
HOT HITTING - Brooke Langston had a great hitting weekend against Indiana and Purdue, with 20 kills and two errors on 31 total attacks, good for a .581 attack percentage. Langston added 12 blocks on the weekend.
ACES - State had 12 service aces in its five-game loss at South Carolina (9/18), its highest single-match total in 2004. Three Spartans had nine of those 12 aces: Maggie Griffin, Megan Wallin and Tracy Bellwood.
THREE'S THE LIMIT, GENERALLY - The Spartans' six-match losing streak, snapped with a 3-1 win against Northwestern (Oct. 23) marked just the third time in former head coach Chuck Erbe's 11-plus years at the helm that MSU had such a streak. State has lost four consecutive matches just six times in Erbe's time as the Spartans' head coach: twice earlier this season, from Sept. 17-25 and Oct. 2-22; Oct. 1-9, 1999, a year when MSU rebounded to reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament; Nov. 19-26, 1993, his first season; and Oct. 15-Nov. 6, 1993, an eight-match streak, also in his first season.
ACE, TROGDON - Redshirt freshman Miken Trogdon posted a career-best four service aces in MSU's four-game set at Michigan (Oct. 6). She also had a dig and an assist in the match.
TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS - State's 2004 Coca-Cola/MSU Volleyball Classic title marked the sixth time the Spartans have won their own tournament, and the fourth time they claimed the title in the last four years that the classic has been held. Additionally, MSU's three selections to the all-tournament team as well as Kim Schram's selection as the tournament's most valuable player move the Spartans' total of Coca-Cola/MSU Volleyball Classic honorees to 23.
HANSEN GETS COMFORTABLE - Redshirt freshman Andrea Hansen made her Spartan debut on Sept. 3 against Ohio, where she hit .375 (4K-1E-8TA) with three block assists and two digs. She returned the next night to post a blistering .643 against Florida A&M, as she had nine kills and no errors on 14 attacks. She added four block assists, two digs and a service ace against the Lady Rattlers.
BELLWOOD STEPS UP - Redshirt freshman Tracy Bellwood stepped in to record 20 digs in two matches at the Gamecock Invitational (9/17-18). In a defensive specialist role against Notre Dame, she had six digs, and came back to record 14 against South Carolina in four games as the libero.
THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER - State's three three-game wins to start the 2004 season mark the second time in the last four seasons that the Spartans have begun the season with three victories in the minimum number of games possible. In 2000, MSU swept Rutgers, Northeastern and Eastern Washington en route to that year's Coca-Cola/MSU Volleyball Classic title. MSU started the season with three three-game sweeps three times since starting to play best-of-five matches in 1982: 2004, 2000 and 1989.
SMART OFF THE COURT, TOO - MSU had nine volleyball players honored as Academic All-Big Ten selections in 2003. Mickey Davis, Stephanie Knopp, Michelle Kopka, Brooke Langston, Jenny Rood, Kim Schram, Diana Steplyk and Megan Wallin were all named to the team. All nine student-athletes were named to the team in 2002 as well.
