Season Finale, Senior Day At Jenison This Weekend

2019 Volleyball Week 14/ Big Ten Week Ten
MSU vs. No. 16 Purdue, Indiana
Dates	Friday, Nov. 29 vs. Purdue, 7 pm Webstream: BTN+ \| Live Statistics
	Saturday, Nov. 30 vs. Indiana, 8 pm Webstream: BTN+ \| Live Statistics
Facility	Jenison Field House \| MSU Athletics No-Bag Policy
Tickets	Spartan Ticket Office Friday: Four Seats, Four Treats MSUFCU Night: Members are FREE with MSUFCU card Saturday: Family Four Pack Free admission with MSU-Maryland Football Ticket Stub
Radio	SpartanSportsNetwork.com (or download the SSN24/7 app)
Game Notes	Michigan State \| Purdue \| Indiana
Parking	Friday: Fans are reminded that the Jenison Field House lot fills quickly. Consider using Kellogg Center, IM West, or Breslin Center. Saturday: Outbound-only traffic begins in the fourth quarter of the football game. Use this map to plan your route to Jenison Field House.
Promotions	Friday: Military Appreciation Night Saturday: Senior Night: Fans are asked to stay in their seats as we honor the three Spartan Seniors
Social Media	Facebook Twitter Instagram

The Fine Print
• MSU hosts No. 16 Purdue and Indiana to wrap up the 2019 season.

• The Spartans will host their senior night on Saturday against the Hoosiers, where Audrey Alford, Maggie Midgette, and Samantha McLean will be honored after their final match in Green & White.

• Both matches will have a live video webstream via BTN+.

• John Kreger returns behind the mic to call the action for Michigan State volleyball on the Spartan Sports Network. All games - home and away - will be carried live for the remainder of the season.

• Purdue is 20-8 on the season and ranked No. 16 in the AVCA National poll. The Boilermakers have won four straight - including a sweep of MIchigan last Saturday on the Boilers' senior night - to improve to 12-6 in Big Ten play. Purdue has a rematch with Michigan on Wednesday before coming to East Lansing for Friday's contest.

• MSU trails the all-time series with Purdue by a 32-54 margin. The Boilermakers have won three straight dating back to the start of the 2017 season, all 3-1 scores, and two of those matches coming in West Lafayette. This will be just the third time since the start of the 2016 season that the teams play at Jenison Field House, and will also be the only meeting of the teams this season. Dave Shondell is in his 17th season as the head coach at Purdue.

• The teams met twice in 2018, with the Boilers taking identical 3-1 decisions.
   In East Lansing, MSU out-blocked their visitors by an 11-9 margin, but had 39 kills to 49 for the Boilermakers, who hit .199 on the night. MSU was hindered by 26 hitting errors and eight more from the service line as they fell 3-1 (25-15, 12-25, 19-25, 17-25).
    Grace Cleveland had 15 kills and six blocks, hitting .367 for the visiting Boilermakers. Caitlyn Newton finished with 12 terminations, while Sheridan Atkinson added nine.
    Alyssa Chronowski, led the Spartans with her first career double-double (12 kills, 10 digs) and added four blocks. Maddie Haggerty had 10 kills and eight digs, and Rebecka Poljan led the Spartans with five blocks.
   In the Halloween rematch in West Lafayette, the squads battled from whistle to whistle, as MSU had leads in three of the four sets but were overtaken late in the third and fourth frames by the more experienced Boilers, who won 3-1 (18-25, 25-19, 18-25, 19-25).
   Purdue put three scorers in double figures, led by Atkinson, who had 18 kills and five digs. Newton had 14 kills and Cleveland added 12. Blake Mohler added a match-best five blocks and eight kills.
    MSU was led by Poljan, who had 10 kills and three blocks, hitting a team-best .304. Haggerty posted her third double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs, adding a pair of aces. Jamye Cox had 21 digs.

• Indiana is under the tutelage of second-year mentor Steve Aird, who was previously the head coach at Maryland after several years as an assistant coach at Penn State.

• The Hoosiers are 14-17 overall and sit a tie for 12th place in the Big Ten (with Iowa) at 3-15 in league play.

• The Spartans and Hoosiers met last Sunday in Bloomington, with IU earning a senior night sweep, 3-0. Seniors Megan Sloan and Kendall Beerman each had 10 kills to lead their squad, and classmate Deyshia Lofton added eight. MSU got an impressive 15 kills (15-0-24, .625) from freshman Biamba Kabengele, while Naya Gros had a match-best six blocks and also contributed five kills. Meredith Norris had five kills and four digs and Jamye Cox had 11 digs.

Team Notes
• Michigan State is struggling through a stretch where it has gone 1-10 over the last 11 games after starting the Big Ten season 4-3.

• MSU sits in a tie for ninth place (with Maryland) in the B1G standings with a 5-13 record. MSU has two games this season against four of the top five teams in the conference standings (Wisconsin, Penn State, Nebraska, and Michigan).

• With a 14-14 record, 11 of MSU's 14 losses have come to teams in the AVCA top-25 or receiving votes at the time of the match: No. 5 and No. 8 Penn State, No. 5 and No. 6 Nebraska, No. 6 and No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 7 Minnesota, No. 19 Illinois, No. 21 Tennessee, and [RV] and No. 23 Michigan. Seven of the 14 losses are to teams ranked in the top eight at the time of the match.

• The Spartans are averaging 2.61 blocks per set which ranks third the Big Ten and 26th nationally.

• MSU hit .265 in its most recent match against Indiana, its best single-game performance since hitting a B1G-season best .331 at Iowa on Oct. 13. The Spartans had just 12 hitting errors, the second-fewest this season in a B1G match behind the six it had in a win at Ohio State (Oct. 4).

• The Spartans served up 10 aces in last Wednesday's heartbreaker vs. Michigan, tying its season high that it established on Nov. 9 in a win over Northwestern. Both matches were five-set affairs.

• Indiana hit .347 in last Sunday's win over MSU, the second-highest average for an opponent in a match this season (Illinois hit .396). Only two other teams have managed to hit .300 or better vs. the Spartans this season: Wisconsin (.303 on Oct. 25) and Michigan (.301 on Nov. 20).

• The Spartans returned 14 letterwinners from the 2018 squad, and all but one starter - 2018 Team MVP Maddie Haggerty is now serving the team as a fifth-year student coach as she finishes her final semester of work toward her degree. MSU's 2019 squad features 18 players, as head coach Cathy George entered the season with three seniors, five juniors, seven sophomores, and three freshmen.

• MSU is not currently in the AVCA National Poll. Seven teams from the Big Ten are among the national top 25, with Wisconsin (5), Nebraska (6), Penn State (7) and Minnesota (8) occupying the top 10, and Purdue (16), Michigan (22) and Illinois (24) rounding out the group.

• In the most recent RPI calculations, 10 of the 14 Big Ten teams appear in the top 92, which includes five squads in the top 25 and eight in the top 50. MSU comes in this week at No. 98. Among MSU's non-conference opponents, three are in the top 75 - Cincinnati (21), North Carolina (62) and Tennessee (72).

• MSU has gone 141-27 (.844) in non-conference action in Cathy George's tenure (2005-19), and has never lost more than four games prior to the beginning of the Big Ten season.

• MSU currently ranks eighth in total attendance among Division I institutions, (41,413), The Spartans are seventh in average attendance in 2019, (3,186). The Spartans have their two final regular-season matches at home.
   MSU has been in the national top 10 for average attendance four straight years and 11 consecutive in the top 20, while MSU has ranked 16th or better in total attendance for 11 straight season as well.
    MSU averaged 3,727 fans over a recent four-match homestand vs. Rutgers, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

• Cathy George is one of four Big Ten head coaches to enter the season with 600+ career wins (638), along with Penn State's Russ Rose (1,271), Nebraska's John Cook (721), and Michigan's Mark Rosen (617). She ranks 15th among active coaches in coaching victories with a 638-414 overall record. She also ranks in the top 80 all-time in head coaching victories.

Player Notes
• The Spartans continue to see some impressive contributions from their freshman class. Biamba Kabengele carried MSU's offense last week, as she averaged 3.38 kills per set, hit .250, and added 0.50 digs and 0.62 blocks per frame. She led MSU with 12 kills against Michigan (adding seven digs) and then was an impressive 15-0-24 at Indiana to hit a match-best .625, the highest percentage for a Spartan in a match this season. Her 15 kills vs. Indiana was her most in a Big Ten match this season and three shy of her career high. She has had double-digit kills in three of MSU's last five Big Ten matches.

• Kabengele has twice been named the B1G Freshman of the Week this season, (Sept. 26 and Oct. 23). She is averaging 2.31 kills (tied for second on the team), 0.62 digs, and 0.39 blocks per set.

• Emma Monks produced season bests of eight kills and hit .747 (8-0-11) at Wisconsin, and last week against Michigan and Indiana hit .348 (12-4-23).

• Monks has earned more playing time, including starts in each of the last four matches. On the year, she is averaging 1.43 kills, 0.71 blocks, 0.34 digs, and a .382 hitting percentage. She has been MSU's match leader in blocks twice in the last five contests.

• Junior libero Jamye Cox had 17 and 11 digs in matches against Michigan and Indiana last week, respectively, and now sits with 1,213 in her career, good for eighth place in MSU's career record book.

• Cox averages 4.06 per set this season (fifth, B1G), which is ninth in MSU's single-season recordbook. She averages 3.77 per set in her career, which is fourth all-time at MSU.

• Cox has been MSU's digs leader in all but two matches this season, with double-digit totals in 26 of 28 matches. She tied her season best of 28 digs in the road match at Michigan, which is one shy of her career-high total of 29 (vs. Belmont, Aug. 2018).

• The Spartans have averaged a half a block better than their opponents through 26 matches (2.61-2.11). MSU has seven players who average between 0.61 and 1.23 blocks per set, led Naya Gros (1.23) and Becka Poljan (1.08); Lauren Swartz is third (.73), followed by Emma Monks (0.71), Molly Johnson (0.68), and Alyssa Chronowski (0.61).

• Naya Gros is averaging 1.74 kills, hitting .279 and posting 1.23 blocks per set, good for seventh in the Conference.

• Gros posted a match-best six blocks (two solo) in last Sunday's match at Indiana, and shared the team lead of four against Michigan earlier in the week. She averaged 1.62 kills and hit .276 in the two matches.

• Rebecka Poljan ranks 14th in the Big Ten with 1.08 blocks per frame, adding 1.81 kills and 0.38 digs per set. She had eight kills, hit .238 and added five blocks in the first contest vs Michigan.

• Ann Arbor native Molly Johnson had 10 kills against Michigan last Wednesday and added three against Indiana on Sunday. She is averaging 1.60 kills, 0.68 blocks, and 0.45 digs on the season, hitting .227.

• Lauren Swartz is averaging 1.36 kills per frame to go with her 0.73 blocks and 0.61 digs per set. In last week's home match against Michigan, she had nine kills and hit .562 (9-0-16).

• Meredith Norris is averaging 2.77 kills, 2.00 digs, and 0.45 blocks per set, and leads the team with 306 points as a six-rotation player.

• Norris has missed a double-double with on five occasions this season where she had double-digit kills and nine digs. She has two of MSU's five double-doubles this season.

• Alyssa Chronowski ranks in a tie for second on the team with 2.31 kills per set, and adds 0.61 blocks and 0.47 digs per frame. In the third set againt Indiana, she came on and put down three kills on five swings (.600) and added a block.

• The Spartans run a 6-2 offense, with senior Maggie Midgette, sophomore Elena Shklyar and graduate transfer Audrey Alford all seeing action. They average 4.54, 4.86 and 4.53 assists per set, respectively.

• Shklyar ranks 15th in the Big Ten in assists per set (4.86), and is adding 1.29 digs per frame. She had a season-best 31 assists and added four digs in the Nov. 9 win over Northwestern, the most assists in a game for any of the three setters this season.

• Alford has 2,997 career assists over her three years at Oklahoma and this year at MSU. She is averaging 4.53 assists and 1.45 digs per frame.

• Midgette has appeared in 57 career sets dating back to 2016, and has averaged 5.22 assists and 0.92 digs per frame in her career. She also has contributed 39 service aces.

• Senior captain Samantha McLean is averaging 1.82 digs/s on the season as MSU's first DS. She will play in her 96th career match on Friday against Purdue, and averages 1.65 digs per set over her four-year career.

• MSU's depth at DS isn't always apparent because the squad runs a 6-2, but sophomore Lauryn Gibbs is averaging 1.11 digs with four aces in 36 sets. She had six digs against Indiana, wearing the libero jersey against the Hoosiers in the final set.

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Players Mentioned

Audrey Alford

Alyssa Chronowski

Jamye Cox

Lauryn Gibbs

Naya Gros

Maddie Haggerty

Molly Johnson

Biamba Kabengele

Samantha McLean

Maggie Midgette

Emma Monks

Meredith Norris

Rebecka Poljan

Elena Shklyar

Lauren Swartz