Spartans Prepare for First of Four Consecutive Road Matches

Oct. 21, 2010

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State volleyball team (11-8, 3-5) hits to the road for the first of four consecutive road matches when it travels to Purdue (13-6, 4-4) on Friday, Oct. 22 for a contest a 7 p.m. ET. The following night, Saturday, Oct. 23, the Spartans will square off at Indiana (15-5, 3-5) for a Big Ten Network match set to start at 8 p.m. ET. The Purdue contest can be seen live on BigTenNetwork.com while Saturday's action against IU will be aired live in high definition on the Big Ten Network.

Scouting Purdue
Purdue enters the match with a record of 13-6 on the year including a 4-4 mark in Big Ten play. The Boilermakers offensively are led by Ariel Turner with 4.28 kills per set overall, and 4.03 in the conference. Jaclyn Hart has a team-high 10.57 assists per set, tallying a 10.44 mark in the Big Ten. Carly Cramer has tallied 4.35 digs per set on the year, 4.84 in conference matches. Tiffany Fisher leads the team at the net with 1.13 blocks per set, blocking 1.19 in conference matches.

Series History: MSU trails in the series, 42-28.
Last Meeting: The Spartans swept the Boilermakers, 3-0, in East Lansing on Nov. 14, 2009.
Coach: The Boilermakers are coached by Dave Shondell who is in his eighth season, posting an all-time record of 138-94.

Scouting Indiana
Indiana currently has a record of 15-5 overall and 3-5 in Big Ten action. Jordan Haverly currently leads the team with 3.35 kills per set overall and 3.58 in the conference. Mary Chaudoin has a team-high 8.75 assists per set, going 6.50 in the Big Ten. Defensively, Caitlin Cox is the top digger with 4.07 per set overall and 4.35 in conference matches, while Ashley Benson is the top blocker with 1.44 blocks per set throughout the year, and 1.61 in the Big Ten.

Series History: MSU leads the all-time series, 40-27.
Last Meeting: The Spartans lost to the Hoosiers, 3-2, on Nov. 13, 2009 in East Lansing.
Coach: Sherry Dunbar is in her fourth season at the reigns of the Hoosiers, going 36-44 at the school and 167-76 all-time.

Recapping Last Week
The Spartans traveled down the road to face No. 15 Michigan for its first of two midweek conference matches of the season on Wednesday, Oct. 13. The Spartans fought hard in all four sets, however were unable to pull out the win, falling 3-1 to the Wolverines. Jenilee Rathje led the Spartans with 15 kills.

MSU picked up its first win over a nationally-ranked opponent on Saturday with a stellar 3-0 win over No. 20 Northwestern (15-4, 5-3 Big Ten). The Spartans handed NU its first 3-0 sweep of the season with the win. Offensively, the Spartans saw even distribution as both Jenilee Rathje and Megan Schatzle recorded 10 kills on 19 attacks for the night.

On the Road Again
Last weekend marked the last Big Ten home contests for the month of October. Throughout the month, MSU will play a total of seven games of the road, compared to its three home contests. The Green and White conclude the month with its final four matches on the road. MSU's home contest on Oct. 16 against Northwestern and its home match against Ohio State on Nov. 5 is the longest span between home matches this season for the Spartans.

Reaching New Heights
Earlier this season the Spartans went through progress testing for several individuals on the team. Each student-athlete was tested on flexibility, vertical leap and other essential fundamentals vital to a volleyball player. The middle blockers averaged a vertical leap of 10-5.5. Leading the way is red-shirt freshman Alexis Mathews with a 10-7 vertical, followed by red-shirt junior Jenilee Rathje at 10-5.5 and freshman Kelsey Kuipers at 10-4.

450 Career Wins
On Aug. 27th, head coach Cathy George became just the 36th active coach to achieve the 450 career win milestone. MSU downed Bowling Green by a score of 3-0 in the opening game of the MSU Showcase. George currently ranks 36th among active coaches in career victories with 460.

Approaching the Century Mark
With already 95 wins as a Spartan, head coach Cathy George is five wins shy of becoming just the third coach in program history to reach the century mark. George currently has a record of 95-84 at MSU.

A Challenging Schedule
MSU is one of two teams in the nation this season to be playing three of the four NCAA National Finalists from 2009. The Spartans battled Hawaii, Penn State and Minnesota, all of which appeared as one of the four remaining teams in the NCAA Championship. The Green and White are joined by Illinois as the other team to face such a challenging schedule. Illinois will face Penn State, Minnesota and Texas on its 2010 schedule.

Conference Rankings
After eight weekends of action in the 2010 season, senior Allyson Karaba currently ranks sixth in the conference in service aces with a 0.38 digs per set average, as well as seventh in digs with 4.06. Karaba is joined by red-shirt junior Jenilee Rathje on the conference rankings list with a fourth-place hitting percentage of .393. Red-shirt freshman Alexis Mathews rounds out the Spartans with her eighth-place ranking in blocks per set (1.18).

The team is currently fifth in assists (12.77) and sixth in blocks with 2.53 blocks per set. MSU is seventh in kills with 13.46 kills per set, service aces (1.13) and hitting percentage (.243). MSU is 10th in both digs per set (12.77) and opponent hitting percentage (.201).

Preseason Recognition
Prior to the 2010 season, several Spartans were recognized for their work both on and off the court. Junior Kyndra Abron was tabbed as one of 16-members of the Preseason All-Big Ten Team. Abron found herself on the conference coaches' radars after earning First-Team All-Big Ten and AVCA All-America Honorable Mention honors her sophomore campaign.

Red-shirt junior Jenilee Rathje was recognized by the conference in July for her dedication to her class work. Rathje was one of 484 student-athletes to receive Big Ten Scholar Athlete distinction. In order to be recognized, each student-athlete must achieve at least a 3.7 or higher for the corresponding academic year.

As a team, the Spartans were tabbed as the sixth-best team in the conference as announced by the coaches poll earlier this summer. Nationally, MSU was ranked tied for 44th in the AVCA Pre-season Poll, voted on by the coaches association.

Fandemonium
Annually, the Spartans have found themselves as one of the national leaders in attendance among NCAA Division I teams. Michigan State has been ranked in the top-25 in average attendance in 14 of the last 15 seasons. MSU posted a program best sixth during the 1996 campaign. The 2008 season saw the Spartans welcome the most total fans in a given season with 36,419. That season also saw Michigan State rank seventh nationally in attendance. Through nine home contests in 2010, MSU has average 1,575 fans a match. Unofficially, the Spartans are currently ranked 23rd in average attendance.

15th Anniversary
The 2010 season marks the 15th anniversary of Michigan State's historic 1995 NCAA National Semi-Final run. In only the program's second NCAA tournament appearance, the Spartans advanced to the NCAA Semi-Finals after stunning Hawaii on its home court in the Regional Final, 3-2. After receiving a first-round bye, the Green and White took care of business against Brigham Young in the sound round and San Diego State in the Regional Semifinal with 3-0 wins over each opponent. After dispatching Hawaii in five sets, the Spartans' magical journey came to an end with a 3-2 loss against Nebraska. MSU got out against the Huskers in the first set, winning it 15-10. However, Nebraska took sets two (15-8) and three (15-8), before MSU squared the match in set four with a 15-9 win. The Huskers closed out the match with a 15-8 win over the Spartans en route to the 1995 NCAA Volleyball Championship.

Volleyball Promotions
All season long, all MSU Friday home matches allow fans the opportunity to purchase the "Friday 4 Pack". The "Friday 4 Pack" gives fans four tickets, four drinks and four hot dogs, nachos or pretzels. The "Friday 4 Pack" applies to advance orders only.

All patrons of the MSU vs. Minnesota football game on Saturday, Nov. 6 will receive free admission to the evening volleyball match when they present their football ticket stub at the door of the MSU vs. Penn State volleyball contest.