Spartans Head to Charleston for Season-Opening Tournament

**2019 Season Week One: Spartans at College of Charleston Tournament**
Dates	Friday-Saturday, August 30-31; Charleston, SC TD Arena

vs. Duke	Friday, Aug. 30; 4:30 pm
	Watch (FloSportsTV, $) \| Live Statistics
vs. CofC	Saturday, Aug. 31, 7 pm
	Watch (FloSportsTV, $) \| Live Statistics
Game Notes	Michigan State \| C ollege of Charleston \| Duke
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• Michigan State begins the 2019 season at the College of Charleston Classic. The Spartans will take on Duke (Friday, 4:30 pm) and the host institution (Saturday, 7 pm). Also in the tournament is reigning National Champion Stanford, which plays the same two teams on alternate days.

• Both matches will have a live video webstream via FloVolleyball (Flosports.tv/caa). See above for direct links to video and live statistics.

• Duke is coming off a 16-12 season, and 10-8 in the ACC, which found the Blue Devils tied for fifth behind Conference champion Pitt. An NCAA Tournament team a year ago, Duke returns five of last year's eight starters and was picked seventh in the ACC pre-season coaches poll.

• MSU leads the all-time series with Duke by a 2-1 margin, with the last meeting a 3-0 Spartan win at Cameron Indoor in September 2015.

• The College of Charleston was picked third in the Colonial Athletic Association preseason poll. The Cougars advanced to the NVIT semifinals in 2018 and returns eight letterwinners from that squad which finished with a 24-12 overall record and went 11-5 in the CAA.

• MSU and CofC have met just once previously, a 3-0 Spartan victory in Charleston in September 2012.

• The Spartans return 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.

• The Spartans were selected ninth in the pre-season Big Ten coaches poll, which was announced on Monday. Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, Penn State, and Illinois are the top five. Purdue (6), Michigan (7), and Ohio State (8) are also in front of the Spartans, while Maryland, Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa, and Rutgers are in spots 10-14.

• MSU does not appear in the AVCA Pre-season National Poll. Seven teams from the Big Ten are among the national top 20, with five appearing in the top eight. Among non-conference opponents, Tennessee starts the year at No. 19, and Cincinnati is receiving votes.

• MSU will play 10 non-conference matches in 2019, the fewest non-league matches scheduled for the Spartans since 2005. In 2017, MSU only played nine matches before the start of the B1G schedule, but that was due to Hurricane Irma forcing the cancellation of a tournament at Florida, wiping out three matches.

• MSU has gone 132-26 (.835) in non-conference action in Cathy George's 14 years at the helm, and has never lost more than four games prior to the beginning of the Big Ten season. The Spartans won three tournament titles and compiled a 12-1 record in the pre-conference portion of the 2018 schedule.

• MSU ranked eighth nationally in 2018 in average attendance, welcoming an average of 3,069 patrons to Jenison Field House per match. It was MSU's fourth straight season in the national top 10 for average attendance, and 11th consecutive in the top 20. Meanwhile, the Spartans finished 12th in overall attendance (39.901), the 11th season that MSU has finished 16th in that category or higher.

• MSU held its annual Green & White exhibition on Friday night, and welcomed more than 1,000 fans to introduce the 2019 team. Fans were treated to a wild affair as the Green squad outlasted White, 3-2 (22-25, 25-14, 25-23, 17-25, 15-7). The teams were evenly matched, as shown by the 32 tie scores and 13 lead changes throughout the match.

• The Green team, coached by assistant coach Jesse Ortiz, was dominant at the net, posting 20 team blocks, hitting .226 and delivering 10 service aces. Meredith Norris had a double-double with 18 kills and 10 digs, adding four aces and three blocks. Freshman Emma Monks made a splash with a match-best 14 blocks (four solo), and also contributed seven kills. Rebecka Poljan had eight kills and four blocks, while Molly Johnson posted five kills and eight blocks. Senior captain Samantha McLean delivered 20 digs, three assists, and an ace. The Green team had a pair of setters, with Maggie Midgette posting 21 assists and six digs along with a pair of aces, and Audrey Alford adding a double-double with 18 assists and 10 digs.

• The White squad – coached associate head coach Kimi Olson and volunteer assistant Vlad Frenc, got a match-best 30 kills from Alyssa Chronowski, who also chipped in five blocks and four digs. Elena Shklyar had double-double with 39 assists and 15 digs. Jamye Cox had 19 digs, a pair of aces, and six assists, while first-year Hannah Grant added 12 digs and had two aces to her credit as well. Julia Hatcher added three blocks and three kills.

• MSU welcomed a new associate head coach in the off-season, bringing Kimi Olson to East Lansing after four seasons as the head coach at Eastern Michigan. Olson was an assistant coach at the College of Charleston from 2010-14, helping the Cougars to a 131-39 mark overall and five CAA championships.

• MSU's 2019 The 2019 squad will feature 18 players, as head coach Cathy George will enter the season with three seniors, five juniors, seven sophomores, and three freshmen.

• 2018 was a learning year for MSU, which fielded the youngest team in the Big Ten after graduating seven seniors (all starters) from its 2017 Elite Eight squad. The team was essentially all first-year Big Ten players a year ago, the staff was encouraged by the consistent improvement from game to game and knows that a more seasoned squad is starting the 2019 campaign.

• Cathy George is one of four Big Ten head coaches to amass 600+ wins (638), along with Penn State's Russ Rose (1,271), Nebraska's John Cook (721), and Michigan's Mark Rosen (617). She enters the 2019 season 15th among active coaches in coaching victories with a 638-414 overall record. She also ranks n the top 80 all-time in head coaching victories.

PLAYER NOTES

• Senior Samantha McLean was named team captain after a pre-season vote of her teammates.

• Last year, McLean played in 116 sets over 33 matches, the second-most of any player on the roster. She averaged 1.84 digs, 0.22 assists, and 0.13 aces per set, one of seven Spartans with double-digit ace totals on the year.

• McLean boasts a perfect 4.0 GPA over six semesters, is a two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and Academic All-Big Ten selection, earning Third Team Academic All-America honors in 2018. She has twice earned the team's Most Inspirational Award and in 2018 the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

• Maggie Midgette is one of the team's two returning seniors. A two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, she appeared in 24 matches last season where she averaged 5.67 assists per set as the Spartans began running a 6-2 offense in the back half of the season. She also averaged 0.92 digs, 0.14 blocks, and 0.29 aces per set, hitting .696 (16-0-23) on the year.

• MSU's third senior is actually a graduate transfer - Audrey Alford played three collegiate seasons at Oklahoma. She redshirted the 2018 season, but brings a career average of 9.35 assists per set to East Lansing for her final season of eligibility. Alford earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology in December 2018 and is now pursuing a masters in Education (coaching and leadership).

• Returning junior Alyssa Chronowski was the only player to appear in all 121 sets a year ago and led the Spartans with 3.02 kills per set (15th, B1G), adding 0.91 digs, 0.64 blocks, and 0.21 service aces. She produced 23 double-digit kill performances in 2018.

• Another junior OH is Meredith Norris, who has shown marked improvement heading into her third varsity season. She appeared in 26 matches a year ago, and averaged 1.62 kills, 1.55 digs, and 0.25 aces per set. Norris and Chronowski are MSU's top threats to be six-rotation players.

• Junior libero Jamye Cox has appeared in 27 of 31 matches this season, and has served as MSU's starting libero in both of her collegiate seasons. She started 29 of 33 matches and led the team with 3.84 digs per set (11th, B1G), and added 20 service aces (0.20 per frame) and 52 assists (0.48).

• Cox posted 419 total digs as a sophomore, good for the 10th highest total in a single season in program history.

• Redshirt junior Lauren Swartz is also expected to challenge for more court time. She appeared in 19 of 20 Big Ten matches a year ago after missing the entire pre-B1G schedule with injury, and averaged 1.33 kills and 0.62 blocks per set.

• Swartz earned her undergraduate degree in Economics last may, and is a two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and Academic All-Big Ten honoree with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. She is now pursuing her graduate degree in Marketing Research.

• Julia Hatcher appeared in just 20 sets in 2018 before she was forced to miss the remainder of the season with injury. She averaged 1.10 blocks per set and added 17 kills before her season ended prematurely.

• The sophomore duo of 6-3 Naya Gros and 6-2 Rebecka Poljan shouldered the load in the middle last year, and both saw blocking numbers among the best for a freshman in program history.

• Gros appeared in all 33 matches and hit a team-best .331 (11th, B1G), averaging 2.08 kills and a team-best 1.19 blocks per frame (sixth, B1G). She established a new freshman record for hitting percentage at MSU, while she was second in total blocks (143), fifth in solo blocks (19), third in block assists (124), and fifth in blocks per frame in the all-time freshman ranking in program history.

• Gros was selected for the 2019 Big Ten Foreign Tour and completed a 10-day training session and exhibition games in Osaka, Kyoto, Aichi Province, and Tokyo, Japan.

• Poljan started 26 of the 28 matches (104 sets) she played and averaged 1.84 kills, hit .238, and added 0.96 blocks per frame. In MSU's freshman record book, her 100 blocks ranked eighth, and 87 block assists ranked seventh.

• The ever-improving Molly Johnson made 31 appearances at OH a year ago, and averaged 1.81 kills per set, hit .210, and added .084 blocks and 0.26 digs per frame. Her 87 block assists put her seventh all-time on MSU's freshmen record list.

• Elena Shklyar appeared in all 33 matches last season, and averaged 7.96 assists per frame (12th, B1G) as the Spartans evolved into a 6-2 offense over the back half of the season. She added 1.15 digs per frame, 0.31 aces (seventh, B1G), and 0.33 blocks per frame.

• Lauryn Gibbs earned the team's Most Improved Player Award as she appeared in 87 sets over the course of the season. She averaged 1.38 digs per set.

• Redshirt sophomore Bella Legarza could see some reps either at her natural position or on the outside.

• Talia Edmonds stood out at the service line in her first season, with seven service aces over 56 sets a year ago, but will be sidelined for most of (if not all) of the preseason.

• MSU will welcome three freshmen to the mix. Middle blocker Emma Monks made her presence known in the Green & White exhibition with 14 blocks, (four solo) and added seven kills. She is product of the No. 1 high school program in the country - Assumption (Louisville, Ky.) - and played club for KIVA.

• Freshman Hannah Grant posted 12 digs in the Green & White game last weekend, and also posted a pair of service aces. She adds great depth to MSU's talented corps of back-row talent.

• OH Biamba Kabengele missed the Green & White match with an injury, but is expected to add her high-flying talent on the outside.

Spartans Head to Charleston for Season-Opening Tournament

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Players Mentioned

Audrey Alford

Alyssa Chronowski

Jamye Cox

Talia Edmonds

Lauryn Gibbs

Hannah Grant

Naya Gros

Maddie Haggerty

Julia Hatcher

Molly Johnson

Biamba Kabengele

Bella Legarza

Samantha McLean

Maggie Midgette

Emma Monks

Meredith Norris

Rebecka Poljan

Elena Shklyar

Lauren Swartz