Spartans Off to Atlanta To Begin 2017 Schedule
8/23/2017 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Aug. 23, 2017
| No. 17 Spartans at Hyatt Regency Invitational at Georgia Tech | |||
| Dates/Times | Fri. Aug. 25 vs. Furman, 8 pm Sat. Aug. 26 vs Auburn, Noon Sat. Aug. 26 at Georgia Tech, 8 pm | ||
| Location | Atlanta, Ga.; O'Keefe Gymnasium | ||
| Tickets | Georgia Tech Ticket Office | ||
| Live Statistics | | ||
| Live Video Stream | vs. Georgia Tech; ACC Network Extra | ||
| Download Game Notes | Michigan State | Furman | Auburn | Georgia Tech | ||
| 2017 Season Preview | Watch | ||
| 2017 Media Guide | Download | ||
| Social Media |  @MichStVB |  MichiganStateVB  @MichStVB | ||
MATCH NOTES
- Michigan State opens the 2017 season at the Hyatt Regency Invitational at Georgia Tech this weekend. MSU takes on Furman on Friday at 8 pm, then plays twice on Saturday vs. Auburn (12 pm) and the host Yellow Jackets (8 pm).
- All three matches have a Gametracker link that can be found on MSUSpartans.com. The match against the host Yellow Jackets on Saturday will also air live on ACC Network Extra.
TEAM NOTES
- In last Saturday's Green & White exhibition, the crowd was treated to high-intensity and entertaining volleyball by the 2017 Spartans. Team Green, captained by senior setter (and co-captain) Rachel Minarick prevailed in the three-set match, 2-1 (25-23, 26-28, 30-28) Fellow co-captain Alyssa Garvelink led the White Team.
- Coming off a 25-9 (13-7) season in 2016, MSU opens the 2017 campaign at No. 17 in the AVCA national poll. The Big Ten coaches selected MSU fourth in the pre-season B1G survey.
- The Spartan senior class was the No. 6 recruiting class in the country back in 2014, while the current freshman class was ranked No. 9 this past summer by PrepVolleyball.
- The Spartans are one of just three Big Ten programs to finish .500 or better in Big Ten play over the last six seasons -- Penn State and Nebraska are the other two.
- The Big Ten again promises to be the pacesetter in Division I volleyball this season, despite losing the most 2016 All-Americans (9) to graduation of any conference in the country. The Big Ten returns 17 2016 All-Americans, six more than the Big 12 (11) and seven more than the Pac-12 and SEC (10 each).
- Head Coach Cathy George enters her 13th season at Michigan State and 31st overall with a 597-389 overall mark and is 232-163 while at MSU. She ranks 22nd among active coaches for total wins in NCAA Division I volleyball.
- George needs three wins to hit the 600-victory plateau, and 18 to become the all-time winningest coach in Spartan history. Annelies Knoppers won 250 games from 1974-84, and Chuck Erbe was 244-140 in his 12-year tenure (1993-2004). George is 232-163 at MSU in 12 seasons.
- MSU's next victory will be the 800th in program history. The Spartans are 799-692-18 (.536) in 43 seasons of varsity action.
- Michigan State shattered single-game and a pair of single-season attendance records last season. MSU had a program best 6,838 fans for Jam Jenison on Nov. 12 vs. Michigan, and ranked sixth in the country in both total attendance (53,895) and average attendance (2,994), both program bests. Before the 2017 pre-season camp began, MSU had established a new program mark with more than 1,000 season tickets sold.
- The Spartans are coming off their 19th overall NCAA Tournament appearance in 2016, and earned their sixth consecutive first round victory in the tournament -- the longest streak in school history.
- MSU's 24-8 record regular-season record in 2016 was the most regular-season victories for a Spartan team since 1996. MSU's final mark of 25-9 tied for the most wins in the Cathy George era, previously set in 2012 at 25-10.
- Thirteen Big Ten victories last year is tied for the fourth-most Conference victories in a season in program history, and the most under Cathy George. Seven times in George's previous 11 seasons the team has won either 11 (2012, 2014) or 10 (2006, 2007, 2011, 2013, and 2015) Conference matches. This is the most Big Ten victories for the Spartans since 2001 (13). The program record is 19, set by the 1995 Big Ten Championship squad.
- 2016 was the fifth season with 20+ victories under current head coach Cathy George, in 12 seasons. MSU had seven 20-victory seasons under Chuck Erbe, and six combined among the first three MSU coaches.
- The Spartans are coming off their 19th overall NCAA Tournament appearance in 2016, and earned their sixth consecutive first round victory in the tournament -- the longest streak in school history.
- The Green and White owned 18 three-set victories in 34 matches last season. The Spartans went 18-6 in three-set matches overall, 5-0 in four-setters, and were 2-3 in their five-set affairs.
- The Spartans were one of the top serving teams in the nation in 2016. The Spartans delivered 223 service aces, good for third nationally and fifth in the Big Ten. MSU also ranked fourth with 1.91 aces per set, good for sixth in the B1G.
- MSU ranked 40th in the nation in blocks per set a year ago, averaging 2.48 per frame (good for 7th in the Big Ten).
- MSU won three of four non-conference Tournament titles in 2016: at San Diego State and Western Kentucky, and the Spartan Classic. Spartans earned a combined nine All-Tournament team nods, including three Tournament MVPs.
- The Spartans did a 10-day foreign tour of Italy and Slovenia May 25-June 3. Four of MSU's incoming freshmen enrolled early and were able to participate in the trip, giving MSU both two weeks of practice in advance of the trip and some high-level competition to prepare for the 2017 season.
PLAYER NOTES
- The Spartans return three AVCA All-America selections: Senior Alyssa Garvelink (Second Team, 2016), Redshirt senior Autumn Bailey (Honorable Mention, 2013, 2014, 2016), and Senior Rachel Minarick (Honorable Mention, 2014).
- In last weekend's Green and White match, Autumn Bailey and Alyssa Chronowski each had double-doubles: Chronowski delivered the kill shot down the line to seal the victory for the Green team, capping her day with 11th kills to go along with 10 digs. Bailey contributed a match-best 20 kills, 14 digs and an ace. Rachel Minarick had 39 assists, while freshman DS/L Jamye Cox recorded a match-high 17 digs.
On the other side of the court, senior Brooke Kranda finished with 13 kills and three blocks, and Alyssa Garvelink had 12 terminations and four blocks (one solo). Freshman Meredith Norris had 10 kills and five digs, and sophomore setter Maggie Midgette contributed 38 assists and three aces. Three from Team White finished with double-digit digs: Sarah Washegesic had 15, Abby Monson 11, and redshirt junior Maddie Haggerty had 11 digs and just missed a double-double with nine kills.
- Garvelink was a Second-team All-American in 2016, and is likely to graduate as one of MSU's top blockers in school history. She currently ranks 10th all time in block assists (323) and ninth in total blocks (406); her 1.17 blocks per set career average is sixth in school history.
- In 2016, Garvelink ranked second in the Big Ten with 1.40 blocks per set, good for seventh all-time in a single season at MSU. Her 145 block assists and 160 total blocks, rank fifth and sixth, respectively, in the MSU single-season record book. She also ranked seventh in the B1G with a .359 hitting percentage in 2016, which is seventh in a single season in the MSU annals.
- Rachel Minarick is serving as a team co-captain for a second straight season. A 2016 Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selection, she led the Spartans and was eighth in the Big Ten with 10.34 assists per set last year. She also ranked fourth in the Big Ten (and third on the team) with 0.33 service aces per set.
- Autumn Bailey earned Honorable Mention All-America honors for the third time in her career last December. After missing the 2015 season with an ACL tear, Bailey returned to the court to earn Honorable Mention All-Big Ten honors. She led the Spartans with 3.15 kills per set (10th in the Big Ten), was second in digs (2.68 per set, 15th B1G) and 0.27 aces per set (12th). She also hit .208 and also contributed 0.37 blocks per set.
- Brooke Kranda was a part of the Big Ten foreign tour this past summer, and is poised for a strong senior season. The fifth-year OH/RS led MSU in 2016 with 49 service aces, averaging 0.56 per set (good for the top spot in the B1G and sixth nationally). She contributed 2.12 kills per set and 0.62 blocks per frame.
- Kranda broke a 30-year old school record with nine service aces against Purdue on Oct. 29, a new MSU best in a four-set match. It was the second-most service aces in a Big Ten match all-time, and the first time since 1992 (and the fourth time overall) that a player recorded nine aces in a B1G contest.
- Senior Holly Toliver participated in the USA Volleyball Collegiate National Team- Minneapolis, back in late June. She enjoyed the first healthy campaign of her collegiate career as a junior, appearing in all 34 matches and playing in 116 of a possible 117 sets, sharing the team high. She ranked second in the B1G in aces per set (0.36) while averaging 1.95 digs per frame, good for third on the team.
- Abby Monson started all 34 matches at libero a year ago, and averaged a team-best 3.47 digs per set, good 11th in the Big Ten. Her season total of 402 digs was just outside the single-season top 10 at MSU.
- Michigan State had four athletes ranked among the top 15 in the Big Ten in service aces per set: Kranda (first , 0.56), Toliver (second, 0.36), Minarick (fourth, 0.33), and Bailey (11th, 0.27). Kranda was sixth nationally.
- Three Senior Aces are among the five freshmen on MSU's 2017 roster. Alyssa Chronowski (No. 30), Jamye Cox (No. 40), and Meredith Norris (No. 25) all enrolled at MSU in January and already have a semester of college courses under their belts. Julia Hatcher and Bella Legarza round out the Spartan newcomers. In addition, redshirt freshman Lauren Swartz will see her first collegiate action this fall after redshirting a year ago and earning the team's Most Improved Award.
- MSU has two 2017 graduates who are pursuing their graduate degrees at other universities and playing beach volleyball during their fifth year of collegiate eligibility: Allyssah Fitterer will play at Hawaii, and Chloe Reinig will play this spring at Loyola-Marymount in Los Angeles.
- MSU will host its Auto Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational Labor Day weekend, and then travel to Florida and Notre Dame for the final two weeks of non-conference action. The Big Ten season begins Sept. 22 at Wisconsin.
Players Mentioned
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