Michigan State University Athletics
Spartans Prepare For Final Road Swing Of Regular Season
11/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 17, 2005
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Spartan Volleyball Game Notes vs. Northwestern and Wisconsin
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The Spartan volleyball team will travel to face Northwestern and #15 Wisconsin in the final regular season road trip of 2005. MSU sits with an overall 12-14 mark, while in Big Ten play State is 5-11 after sweeping Indiana Nov. 12 at Jenison Field House. Katie Johnson continues to lead the Spartan hitters with 5.18 kills per game, 11th in the national standings. Ashley Schatzle led the Spartans offensively vs. both Michigan and Indiana with 13 and 17 kills respectively, while libero Nicole Colaluca continued her double-digit dig stretch to 26 consecutive matches.
THE WINNING WAYS - MSU swept Indiana 3-0 at Jenison Field House on Saturday night where the Spartan volleyball team welcomed alumni from the past. In the win, Ashley Schatzle led all hitters with 17 kills, while Megan Wallin and Katie Johnson added 13 and 12 respectively. MSU bettered its 2005 record to 12-14 for the year, including a 5-11 Big Ten slate.
CROSS-STATE - The Spartans lost 0-3 to cross-state rival Michigan on Wednesday. Playing at Cliff Keen arena in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines captured the season series with the sweep. Ashley Schatzle led the Spartans with 13 kills, while libero Nicole Colaluca added 21 digs in the loss.
COLALUCA HITS CAREER MARK - Spartan libero Nicole Colaluca reached the 500 dig plateau so far this season in the Spartan loss to Minnesota Saturday at Jenison. Her 2005 total, 578, ranks as the highest single-season effort in MSU history. Cola spent her freshman and sophomore season's competing for the St. John's Red Storm where as a freshman, she tallied 474 digs and as a sophomore 592.
BIG TEN ROUNDUP - Penn State continues to dominate league play as it solidified the Big Ten title with wins vs. Purdue and Illinois in weekend action. Wisconsin stands at 11-5, while the Ohio State Buckeyes are just back at 11-4 to round out the top three in league standings. MSU sits in the eighth position with a 5-11 mark as it readies to face Northwestern and Wisconsin this weekend.
NATIONAL SCENE - As of the Nov. 7th NCAA National Rankings, three Spartans ranked among the nation's elite. Katie Johnson ranks 11th in the nation with 5.18 kills per game, Mickey Davis boasts a 13.09 assists per game average - 21st in the nation, while Nicole Colaluca ranks 19th at the libero position with 5.46 digs per game. (The NCAA releases national stats on Tuesday of each week.)
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS - The Wildcats upset the nationally-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers on the road last weekend 3-2. Riding the momentum, NU went on to sweep Iowa 3-0 on Saturday night. Both MSU and NU will enter play this Friday fresh off of 3-0 sweeps - in the 2005 series opener on Oct. 22, MSU captured the 3-2 victory at Jenison Field House.
SCOUTING THE BADGERS - Wisconsin sits in second place in the Big Ten standings heading into weekend play vs. the Wolverines and Spartans. The Badgers split decisions last weekend with a win vs. Iowa and a loss to #17 Minnesota.
SCHATZLE LEADS THE WAY - Sophomore outside hitter Ashley Schatzle paced the Spartan offense vs. both Michigan and Indiana last week. In the cross-state Challenge Cup match with Michigan on Nov. 9, Schatz added 13 kills, one dig and one block solo, while in the Nov. 12 sweep vs. the Hoosiers, she tallied a floor-best 17 kills hitting .467 for the match. In her first year in the Green and White, Schatzle has 347 kills averaging 3.43 kpg.
STATISTICS, TAKE ONE - MSU struggled with a .144 hitting percentage at Michigan on Nov. 9th when the Wolverines swept the Spartans. State tallied 47 kills, however 27 errors hampered the offense. Vs. Indiana, MSU hit CONSIDERABLY better with a .322 attack percentage with 56 kills and just 19 errors.
STATISTICS, TAKE TWO - Not only is the hitting percentage, the kill total, the error total, the assist total, and the list goes on and on - VERY relative to Spartan success, but also is the location. In home contests - 12 of them thus far in 2005 - MSU is 7-5, hits .227 and averages 16.8 kills per game. On the road, the story is much different. State holds just a 3-7 record with a .167 hitting percentage and just 15.2 kills per game on average.
THE DOUBLE-DIGIT DUO - The dynamic double-digit duo of Katie Johnson and Nicole Colaluca have posted numbers to impress in 2005. Colaluca has tallied double-digit dig totals in all of the Spartans' 26 matches this season with 13 contests with an above 20 total, three matches with an above 30 total and her career-best 45 dig effort vs. Sacramento State on Sept. 17. Johnson has tallied double-digit kill totals in 24 of 25 matches she's played in thus far in 2005. The lone exception was the Ohio State match on Oct. 14 where she played very sparingly due to an arm injury. Johnson has 15 matches with at least 20 kills while she posted a career-high 33 kills vs. VCU and more recently 30 vs. Illinois on Oct. 28.
THE WOLVES' TOOK THE CAKE - Despite a valiant effort by the Spartans in 2005, the Michigan Wolverines captured yet another State Pride Flag. The win marks the fourth straight for the cross-town rivals, as the Spartans captured their last flag during the 2001 one season - get em' next year!
ROUGH ROAD AHEAD - State has endured a tough season so far, and the next four matches won't get any easier. Northwestern recently downed Minnesota - AT MINNESOTA - so they are a team on the move, while the Badgers are consistently tough within the league. After the Turkey Day holiday, MSU will return home to host Penn State and Ohio State in the final regular season weekend of play. Penn State is currently ranked second in the national polls this week, while the Buckeyes are 17th among national competitors.
MILESTONE MARKER - A number of Spartans are climbing the record books - senior setter Mickey Davis has 1,379 career assists - 1,335 of those in 2005. After posting a combined 82 assists vs. Michigan and Indiana - Davis moved into the 10th place spot on the all-time charts. Senior defensive specialist Marley Bellwood needs just 26 digs to move into 10th place all-time. Bellwood reached the 1,000 dig milestone vs. Penn State on Oct. 15, currently she has 1,049 career digs.
HEAD COACH Cathy George - Spartan head coach Cathy George is in her first season at the helm of the MSU volleyball program. During her time as a collegiate head coach, George holds an overall 377-238 record - a .613 winning percentage for her career. If the outcome of the year is up to George, MSU will finish with a better than .500 average - for her 19 year head coaching career, she has had just seven seasons with a below .500 finish.
IN 2005, AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS - Thus far in 2005, MSU is 0-7 against ranked opponents with losses to Louisville, Minnesota, Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and most recently the 3-1 loss to #17 Minnesota on Nov. 5
SINCE THE GLORY DAYS OF SEPTEMBER - After opening the 2005 season with a 5-0 slate, MSU has failed to string two consecutive wins together since. MSU's longest losing streak of the year was from the Oct. 7th loss to Purdue until MSU captured a five game win vs. Northwestern on Oct. 22 at Jension Field House. In the last seven matches, MSU has gone 3-4 most recently with a victory over Indiana.
FINAL FOUR - In 2004, MSU went 1-3 in the final four contests of the season - a victory over Northwestern, then three consecutive losses to Wisconsin, Penn State and Ohio State... does that lineup sound familiar? Same lineup for the last four in 2005.
FIVE-GAMERS - Michigan State has played nine five-game matches after the win vs. Iowa on Nov. 4 that went the distance. In those five-game matches, MSU is 4-5. Six of those matches have come in Big Ten play, where MSU holds a 3-3 record.
GREEN & WHITE FAITHFULL - MSU consistently ranks among the nation's best in home attendance figures. Thus far in 2005, MSU averages 1,452 fans per match at Jenison Field House, including a 1,573 in Big Ten matches. MSU drew its largest crowd of the season Sept. 21 when it played host to cross-state rival Michigan - 2,056 fans watched the five-game thriller!
IT LOOKS LIKE THIS - At home, MSU is 7-5, on the road the Spartans are 3-7 and at a neutral site MSU is 2-2. MSU needs to get on its winning ways at home during conference season however, in 2005 MSU is 2-5 in home contests against Big Ten opponents.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN - `MSU struggled on the road last season finishing with a 3-9 record with wins over Wichita State, Indiana and Northwestern. Thus far in 2005, the Spartans are 3-6 away from Jenison Field House.
DID YOU KNOW? - Prior to the installation of the wooden playing surface this summer in Jenison, the Spartans had played their home matches on the sport court surface from 1993-2004, a span of 12 seasons. When volleyball started at MSU, the Spartans competed on the main wooden floor at Jenison.
CAPTAIN SALUTE - Senior middle blocker Megan Wallin and sophomore outside hitter Katie Johnson will share captain duties for the 2005 season.
GEORGE TRACK RECORD - First-year head coach Cathy George has a celebrated coaching record. She was the first woman to coach a team to the NCAA Final Four in just her first season at the helm of the Texas-Arlington program in 1989. Posting winning seasons and strong academic numbers are key aspects of any Cathy George run program. Student-athletes boasted a 100 percent graduation rate during her time at WMU - an amazing figure coaching at any level of athletics.
TOURNEY TALK - The 2004 campaign marked the first season in the last 10 that the Spartans did not participate in the NCAA Championship Tournament - an impressive run, and one of the longest streaks in the NCAA prior to missing tourney action in 2004. During that 10-year streak, the Spartans posted a combined 11 victories.
