Volleyball Travels to No. 12 Minnesota and Iowa

Oct. 15, 2008

Volleyball Coverage
• Cathy
• Allyson
• Kyndra

Live Audio vs. Minnesota |Live Audio vs. Iowa

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The 2008 Michigan State volleyball squad (11-6, 3-3) will embark on its second Big Ten road trip this weekend with scheduled stops at No. 12 Minnesota on Friday and Iowa on Saturday. Both matches will be played at 8 p.m. (ET) and the clash with Minnesota will air on ESPN 2 on a tape delayed broadcast, Sunday at noon.

The Spartans currently stand at 3-3 in the Big Ten, placing them in a four-way tie for fifth place in the conference. Led by junior middle blocker Vanessa King (Spring Lake, Mich.) and freshman setter Natalie Emro (Wildwood, Mo.), the Spartans were able to split their two matches last weekend, topping Northwestern on Friday and losing to No. 21 Wisconsin on Saturday.

King tallied 24 kills in the two matches, moving her into the team lead with 189 kills on the season. King is hitting .363 on the season, also a team-best as she has hit over .300 in 12 of 17 matches this season, eclipsing .400 in eight of those. With 80 total blocks, King leads the team with an average of 1.27 per set.

Emro has been one of the Spartans top performers since the start of Big Ten play. Emro is averaging 10.65 assists per set, helping the Spartans rank third in the Big Ten in kills at 14.13 per set. Emro had one of her best matches in a Spartan uniform against Northwestern, handing out 54 helpers, posting seven kills and a career-best nine total blocks. Her two solo bocks and seven block assists, both of which are career-highs, helped MSU post a season-high 16 blocks during that match.

Emro, who has 671 assists and 114 total points this season, has directly contributed to 72-percent of the Spartan's total offensive point production, which ranks her second in the Big Ten. The only setter to have a better percentage than Emro is Lexi Zimmerman of Michigan. She is one of only three setters in the Big Ten to eclipse the 70-percent mark.

The Spartan block has been a key to their success during Big Ten play. MSU has posted 59 blocks in six Big Ten matches thus far, their most in any six-match span this season.

Freshman Kyndra Abron (Livonia, Mich.) has been one of the Spartans top attackers since Big Ten play began. Abron has tallied double-digit kills in four of the Spartans six Big Ten clashes this season, posting a season-high 13 against Northwestern. In that six-match span, Abron has hit .269 from the outside and added 57 kills to her ledger. Abron now ranks fourth on the team in total kills with 112.

Iowa finished the Big Ten season 1-19 last year, but with first-year head coach Sharon Dingman at the helm, the Hawkeyes have been one of the biggest surprises in the Big Ten in 2008. In fact, during the opening week of Big Ten play, the Hawkeyes defeated No. 18 Wisconsin to earn their first Big Ten win. The win over the Badgers marked their first victory over Wisconsin since 1994. They also defeated Northwestern in the opening weekend of Big Ten action, giving them two conference wins, eclipsing their Big Ten Conference win total from a season ago.

Minnesota comes into the weekend ranked No. 12 in the nation as they have been one of the perennial powers in the Big Ten over the past several seasons. Minnesota has finished in the top-25 in seven of the last nine seasons. This season, the Gophers have a 5-1 record in Big Ten play and have compiled a 15-3 overall record in 2008. Two of their three losses have come to top-10 teams, as the Gophers lost to Hawaii, 3-2, back in September and dropped a match, 3-0, to No. 1 Penn State last Saturday.

Live audio, featuring the voice of the Spartans John Kreger, will be featured at www.msuspartans.com for both matches.