Final Road Series on Tap at Iowa


Michigan State (2-9) at Iowa (3-13)
Opponent	Iowa
Dates	Friday/Saturday March 26/27, 6 pm CT/ 7 pm ET
Facility	Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa
Radio	none
Television	none
Webstream	Friday (BTN+) \| Saturday (BTN+)
Live Statistics	Friday \| Saturday
Game Notes	Michigan State \| I owa
Social Media	Facebook Twitter Instagram
Coverage	Watch this week's Coach George Press Conference

The Fine Print:

• Michigan State has its final road matches of the season when it travels to Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes. The games will be in Iowa's new XTreme Arena.

• John Kreger returns behind the mic to call the action for Michigan State volleyball on the Spartan Media Network. The Spartan Media Network broadcasts begin on January 31 at home against Ohio State, and all remaining home games will be carried, including the season finale vs. Rutgers next weekend.

• MSU came off a month-long pause for Covid issues and hosted No. 12 Penn State last weekend at Jenison Field House. The Nittany Lions took both ends of the series, 3-0. Prior to last weekend's games, MSU was last on the court on February 21, a 3-1 loss to No. 1 Wisconsin. MSU missed weekend series' with Illinois, Northwestern, and Purdue during its pause.

• The spring 2021 volleyball schedule in the Big Ten conference will consist of , two-match weekend series and one home-and-home series with its travel partner. Each team will play 22 Conference matches, and no matches against non-conference teams. Michigan State is not scheduled to play Nebraska or Indiana in spring 2021.

• Only Michigan (9) and Northwestern (5) have played fewer matches than MSU's 11.

• Iowa has lost five straight matches, most recently at the hands of No. 5 Nebraska at home. The Hawkeyes enter the weekend series with a 3-13 record.

• MSU leads the all-time series by a 50-26 margin, which includes a 21-13 mark in Iowa City. The last meeting was a single match in 2019, which the Spartans won by a 3-2 margin at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa had taken both meetings in 2018.

• Vicki Brown is in her second full season as the Hawkeye head coach, appointed in 2019. There are no seniors on the roster, there are four juniors, and six each sophomores and freshmen.

Team Notes:
• To be expected, MSU looked rusty coming off its near-monthlong pause when it took the court against Penn State. The team had less than a full week of practice with enough players to field a squad, and are still in the process of having players return.

• The Spartans were 2-7 at the time of the Covid pause, having most recently come off a three-game week where MSU played Michigan midweek and twice against Wisconsin, the No. 1 team in the nation. MSU resumed play last week against the No. 12 team in the country, Penn State.

• MSU had 11 players appear in at least one match last weekend. MSU hit below .100 in each of the two matches.

• With a 15-15 record in 2019, 12 of MSU's 15 losses came to teams in the AVCA top-25 or receiving votes at the time of the match. Seven of the 15 losses were to teams ranked in the top eight at the time of the match.

• MSU is not in current AVCA Top 25 National Poll. Six teams from the Big Ten are among the national top 11: Wisconsin (1), Minnesota (4), Nebraska (5), Ohio State (9), Purdue (10), and Penn State (11).

• MSU is 0-7 at home and 2-2 on the road (2-0 at Maryland, 0-2 at Minnesota). The Spartans have played No. 9 Ohio State, No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 12 Penn State, and Michigan at home.

• 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 ranked ninth in total attendance among Division I institutions in 2019, welcoming 46,510 fans through the turnstiles, The Spartans also finished seventh in average attendance in 2019, with 3,101 per match. There will be limited or no fans at B1G matches in this spring season.

• Cathy George is one of four Big Ten head coaches to enter the spring 2021 season with 600+ career wins (653), along with Penn State's Russ Rose (1,299), Nebraska's John Cook (749), and Michigan's Mark Rosen (638). She ranks 13th among active coaches in coaching victories with a 653-427 overall record. She also ranks in the top 80 all-time in head coaching victories.

• Four freshmen have joined the Spartans for the spring 2021 campaign. This class was the No. 13 ranked class among the fall 2020 group in Division I volleyball.

Player Notes:
• Only three players have appeared in all 11 matches for MSU: setter Celia Cullen, libero Jamye Cox, and middle Naya Gros. Gros is the only one to have started all nine.

• Meredith Norris played both matches against Penn State, and averaged a team-best 2.33 kills per set.

• Norris, a six-rotation player for the Spartans, has just five reception errors in 113 chances for a .956 reception percentage. She averages 1.37 kills and 1.44 digs per set. She is also second on the team in service aces (6)

• Alyssa Chronowski played all three sets of the first match against Penn State and shared the team lead with eight kills, and she added a season-best six digs in the contest. On the year, she's averaging 1.28 kills and 0.53 digs per frame.

• Naya Gros shared the team lead of eight kills against Penn State in game one, and had three blocks (two solo) with three kills in match two.

• On the season, Gros has averaged 1.51 kills and leads the squad with 0.87 blocks per set. She has 11 of MSU's 17 solo stuffs.

• Gros' career average of 1.16 blocks per set ranks seventh on MSU's career list, and is close to on par with the career average of two-time All-American Alyssa Garvelink, who averaged 1.21 blocks per set from 2014-17. Gros' 263 career block assists is 66 shy of getting her into MSU's all-time top 10 in that category, and her 312 career blocks is just 76 away from joining MSU's top-10 all-time list.

• Senior libero Jamye Cox posted 13 digs in the most recent series vs. Penn State. She is averaging 3.56 digs per set, good for ninth in the Big Ten.

• Cox ranks fourth all-time at MSU in career digs (1,339) and fourth in career digs per set (3.77). Ahead of her on the all-time digs list is Kori Moster (2,218, 2011-14), Veronica Morales (1,484, 1994-97), and Jill Crumm (1,466 1986-89).

• Freshman setter Celia Cullen has posted three matches with 40 assists or more, including her season best of 50 in the first match at Maryland. She ranks ninth in the Big Ten in assists per set (8.31), and is also averaging 1.91 digs and is tied for second on the team in service aces (5).
• Cecilee Max-Brown missed Friday's match vs. Penn State. She came off the bench on Saturday to post five kills and an ace. On the year, she is averaging 2.16 kills per set and also contributing 1.08 digs per frame.

• Max-Brown is a transfer to MSU from Oregon State. She missed considerable time to injury during her freshman year in 2019, when she played in 11 matches and 38 sets, making eight starts. She finished the season with 111 kills and averaging 2.92 kills/set – second on her team.

• Emma Monks had a kill and a solo stuff in the Friday game vs. Penn State. Monks is averaging 1.33 kills and 0.53 blocks per set on the year.

• Lauryn Gibbs has seen a significant increase in her defensive role for MSU. She owned MSU's top dig total in both games against Penn State, including her season best of eight in the Saturday matchup. On the year, she's averaging 0.35 assists and 1.18 digs per frame.

• Rebecka Poljan has started all nine matches in which she has appeared, and is averaging 1.18 kills per set and leads the team with a .213 hitting percentage. She's also contributing 0.46 blocks per frame.

• Molly Johnson had seven kills in the second matchup with Penn State, hitting .158 and adding a season-best six digs. She's averaging 1.44 kills and 0.38 blocks per set on the season.

• Elena Shklyar has developed into a serving specialist for MSU, coming into the game for 67 serves with just eight errors against five aces on the year. She played the second set at setter for MSU in the second match vs. Penn State and had seven assists. She's also averaging 1.24 assists and 0.48 digs per set.

• Freshman Sarah Franklin will miss the remainder of the season with an arm injury. She was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after the Maryland series, and currently ranks seventh in the Big Ten in kills per set (3.81) and eighth in points per set (4.13). She is second in the league and 26th nationally in attempts per set (12.12). She is averaging 2.18 digs per set as a six-rotation player, second on the team behind libero Jamye Cox.

• Franklin had two 20-kill efforts in her final three matches, as well as delivering a pair of double-doubles. Her 3.82 kills per set would rank third in the MSU freshman record book. Only six players have previously averaged better than three kills per set in their freshman season: Veronica Morales, Jenna Wrobel, Kim Schram, Becky Belanger, Jenny Rood, and Erin Hartley.

• Biamba Kabengele ranks second on the team with 2.25 kills per set on the season, and is also tied for second on the team with five aces.

• Kabengele had all five aces in a win at Maryland, the second-most aces in a single game for a Big Ten player this season.

• Lauren Swartz was the team's best hitter against Wisconsin (8-1-19, .368), adding a pair of digs. She's averaging 1.22 kills per set and hitting .265 on the season. She missed the Penn State series.

• Talia Edmonds played all seven sets against Wisconsin, tallying a career-best 11 digs and an assist in Saturday's match. She's averaging 1.20 digs per set, but missed the Penn State series with illness.

• Edmonds returned to the court after missing the 2019 season with an injury. She's third on the team in service attempts this season (94) and averaging 0.13 aces per frame.

• Freshmen Lia Moore and Grace Danziger have not yet played for the Spartans in 2021. As a January 2021 enrollee, Danziger is not eligible to play until the fall 2021 campaign.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Chronowski

Jamye Cox

Celia Cullen

Grace Danziger

Talia Edmonds

Sarah Franklin

Alyssa Garvelink

Lauryn Gibbs

Naya Gros

Molly Johnson

Biamba Kabengele

Cecilee Max-Brown

Emma Monks

Lia Moore

Meredith Norris

Rebecka Poljan

Elena Shklyar

Lauren Swartz