Auto-Owners Spartan Invitational On Tap for Volleyball

**2019 Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational**
Dates	Friday-Saturday, Sept. 6-7, 2019
Schedule	View Tournament Central
Facility	Jenison Field House \| MSU Athletics No-Bag Policy
Tickets	Spartan Ticket Office BOGO Ticket Offer Friday: Family Four Pack Saturday: Four Seats, Four Treats
Webstreams	All seven matches will have a live stream on BTN +
Live Statistics	Follow along here
Radio	SpartanSportsNetwork.com (or download the SSN24/7 app)
Game Notes	Download MSU Notes
Press Conference	Watch This Week's Volleyball Press Conference
Parking	Parking will be limited on Saturday with home football. Please see the parking map or view additional lots at the Tournament Central page.
Social Media	Facebook Twitter Instagram

TEAM NOTES

• Michigan State hosts the Auto Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational this weekend, welcoming Indiana State, Cincinnati, Miami, and Tennessee to East Lansing. Miami is the only one of the four that will not have a matchup with MSU.

• All seven matches will have a live video webstream via BTN+. Visit MSUSpartans.com for direct links to video and live statistics.

• 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.

• MSU went 2-0 on the opening weekend. The Spartans took a 3-1 victory over Duke on the opening night of the season, and followed that up with a 3-0 sweep of the College of Charleston. MSU placed a pair of players on the All-Tournament Team: Jamye Cox and Meredith Norris.

• MSU has gone 134-26 (.835) 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. The Spartans won three tournament titles and compiled a 12-1 record in the pre-conference portion of the 2018 schedule.

• The Spartans limited opponents to a combined .106 hitting percentage, averaging 3.71 blocks and 18.57 digs per set in a 2-0 weekend. The Spartans rank fifth in opponent hitting percentage, and lead the league in both blocks and digs.

• Four different MSU players averaged 1.00 blocks per set or better over the two matches. The Spartans posted 16 blocks in the opener vs. Duke, a higher team block total than all but one match a year ago (18 at home vs. Ohio State). MSU then posted 10 team blocks vs. College of Charleston.

• MSU had back-to-back double-digit blocking performances to start the 2018 season as well, en route to a season total of 16.

• MSU's 71 digs in the match vs. Duke was higher than all but one match in 2018, where its season best was 82 in a five-setter against Indiana. The Spartans followed that up with 59 digs in the sweep of Charleston.

• MSU went 2-0 on the opening weekend, its first unblemished first weekend of competition since 2016.

• MSU's first opponent on Friday will be Indiana State. The Sycamores dropped all three matches at the Green Bay Invitational, falling to Northeastern (3-1), Fresno State (0-3) and the host squad (2-3). Senior middle blocker Cassie Kawa was named to the All-Tournament team.

• MSU owns a 4-3-1 edge in the all-time series with the Sycamores, but Friday's meeting of the teams will be the first since 1993. Lindsay Allman is in her third season as the head coach.

• Friday evening, MSU will tangle with Cincinnati, which went 2-1 last weekend. The loss came to No. 12 Pitt at the Panther Challenge in Pittsburgh, but the Bearcats swept Cleveland State and earned a 3-1 win over South Carolina.

• Jordan Thompson averaged 4.70 kills, 3.2 digs, and 0.70 blocks per set for Cincinnati last weekend. She played for Team USA in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) over the summer, leading Team USA in points during the Olympic-qualifying tournament and helping the squad to a gold medal.

• Molly Alvey has been at the helm of the Cincinnati program since 2012. Her Bearcats were picked second in the American Athletic Conference pre-season poll and were receiving votes in the pre-season AVCA national survey. MSU and Cincinnati last met at the Western Kentucky tournament in 2016, a 3-0 Spartan win. Cincinnati made a previous appearance in this tournament in 2013, also a 3-0 MSU sweep.

• No. 21 Tennessee played a home-and-home series with No. 6 Illinois, dropping a pair of 3-2 decisions to the Illini. Friday's match saw the Vols take a 2-0 match lead before Illinois stormed back to send it to five and take a 21-20 decision in the fifth set. On Sunday, Illinois took the 2-0 lead at home and it was Tennessee that forced a fifth, but Illinois came away with a 15-8 fifth-set victory.

• Eve Rackham is in her second season as the head coach at Tennessee, and guided her Vols to a 14-game improvement from 2017 and a second-place finish in the SEC a year ago. MSU and Tennessee met in the season opener last year in Knoxville, with UT earning a 3-1 win in Rackham's Vols debut.

• Miami (Ohio) is playing two matches in this tournament, but will not face off with the Spartans. The RedHawks hosted a tournament last weekend and went 2-1, defeating both Virginia Tech and USC-Upstate before falling to Northwestern 3-1 in the finale.

• Carolyn Condit is in her 36th season at Miami and 40th season as a head coach overall. Her squads have won the last three MAC Championships. Spartan assistant Jesse Ortiz was on Condit's staff at Miami from 2014-16.

• 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 Aug. 19. 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 is not currently in the AVCA National Poll. Seven teams from the Big Ten are among the national top 20, with four appearing in the top six. Among non-conference opponents, Tennessee is No. 21, 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 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 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. Jesse Ortiz is in his third season on the Spartan sideline, and Vlad Frenc joins the staff in 2019 as the volunteer assistant.

• 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 in the top 80 all-time in head coaching victories.

PLAYER NOTES

• Meredith Norris and Jamye Cox were named to the All-Tournament Team for the College of Charleston Classic last weekend, helping the Spartans to a perfect 2-0 mark.

• Norris opened her junior season with a career-best 23 kills in the match vs. Duke, just missing a double-double with nine digs. She came back against the host school and posted 16 kills and nine digs. She hit an impressive .393 on the weekend, and averaged 5.57 kills, 2.57 digs, and 0.43 blocks per set with a pair of aces, committing just four hitting errors on 89 swings.

• Norris ranks 12th in the Big Ten in hitting percentage and is second in kills per set.

• Cox averaged 6.57 digs per frame at CofC, and leads the Big Ten in that category after one week of play. In the opener vs. Duke, she was one shy of her career best when she posted 28 digs against the Blue Devils, and had 18 digs with five assists in the win over College of Charleston. She was a perfect 38-for-38 over the two matches on serve receive.

• Alyssa Chronowski posted 2.29 kills and 1.14 blocks per set in the two matches in Charleston. She was one of four players to average a block per set or better.

• The sophomore duo of 6-3 Naya Gros and 6-2 Rebecka Poljan shouldered the load in the middle last year, and both stepped up to do the same in Charleston. Gros averaged 1.71 blocks per frame (second, B1G) and Poljan was right behind with 1.57, which ranks third.

• Three players were one shy of tying their career bests in blocks in the match against Duke: Chronowski had six, Gros nine, and Poljan seven.

• Redshirt junior Lauren Swartz started both matches in Charleston, and averaged 1.14 kills and 1.14 blocks per frame.

• Senior captain Samantha McLean recorded 14 digs against Duke, establishing a new career best. She's averaging 3.00 digs/s.

• The Spartans ran a 6-2 offense with setters Elena Shklyar and graduate transfer Audrey Alford. The duo each averaged 5.00 assists per set in the first weekend.

• Alford posted a double-double against College of Charleston with 15 assists and 10 digs; over two matches she averaged 2.29 digs. She had 19 assists in her MSU debut vs. Duke.

• Shklyar had 27 assists and six digs against the Blue Devils in her season debut.

• Molly Johnson averaged 0.71 blocks per set, and added 1.43 kills per frame. She also posted a career-best four digs in the match vs. Duke.

• Julia Hatcher appeared in just 20 sets in 2018 before she was forced to miss the remainder of the season with injury. She made her 2019 debut against the College of Charleston.

• Lauryn Gibbs also saw her first action vs. College of Charleston, coming on in the third set and recording five digs in the frame.

• OH Biamba Kabengele missed the Green & White match with an injury, but made her collegiate debut against the College of Charleston. She recorded a pair of kills on three swings.

• Setter Maggie Midgette saw some time in Charleston as a serving sub.

• MSU played 14 of its 18 players in Charleston.

• 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.

• 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.

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

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