Non-Conference Schedule Wraps With Green & White Classic


Green & White Volleyball Classic
Opponents	Oakland, IUPUI, and Central Michigan
Dates	Friday-Saturday, Sept. 17-18, 2021
Facility	Jenison Field House, East Lansing, Mich.
Radio	Spartan Media Network; John Kreger, pxp Listen Live
Television	none
Webstreams (BTN+/$)	vs. Oakland \| vs. IUPUI \| vs. Central Michigan
Live Statistics	Click here for Sidearm Statistics
Game Notes	Michigan State \| Oakland \| IUPUI \| Central Michigan
Social Media	Facebook Twitter Instagram
Tournament Website	Click Here \| Download Digital Game Program

In line with indoor mask mandates campus-wide, all fans, media, and individuals working at Michigan State volleyball matches will be required to correctly wear a mask.

THE WEEKEND AHEAD
• MSU completes its non-conference schedule this weekend when it hosts the Green & White Classic tournament. Oakland, Central Michigan, and IUPUI will all come to Jenison Field House for a five-match event.

• All five matches this weekend will have a live video webstream on BTN+. MSUSpartans.com has links to all live statistics and webstreams, as does the tournament website:
admin.msuspartans.com/feature/GWClassic.

• John Kreger returns behind the mic to call the action for Michigan State volleyball on the Spartan Sports Network. He will call all three MSU matches this weekend.

• Michigan State enters the weekend with a 4-2 overall record, but is coming off an idle weekend after matches vs. North Carolina and Duke were canceled due to health and safety protocols.

• The Spartans went 2-1 in each of the first two weekends of non-conference tournaments, the most recent being a pair of 3-0 sweeps against Dixie State and Weber State before falling to BYU in the host school's home tournament.

• Oakland has won five straight matches over the last two weekends after a pair of losses to ranked teams in an 0-3 start. Rob Beam is in his 15th season as the head coach of the OU program.

• MSU is 9-0 all-time against the Golden Grizzlies, most recently a 3-0 sweep in the 2019 season.

• IUPUI has had a tough start to the season with a 2-7 record, its most recent game a 3-0 loss to Western Michigan, the only common opponent IUPUI shares with MSU. The Spartans are 3-0 in the all-time meetings between the schools, the most recent in 2019.

• Lindsey Froelich has been at IUPUI since 2015, and was elevated to the head coaching position in 2019.

• Central Michigan has been under the tutelage of head coach Mike Gawlik for five years, a position he achieved after 11 years at Michigan State as an assistant to Cathy George. CMU is 5-4 on the year, with one common opponent: both MSU and the Chippewas fell to Wright State this season, MSU in a 3-2 dogfight and CMU in a 3-0 decision.

• Central Michigan owns a 29-21-2 lead in the all-time meetings of the teams, but MSU has won six straight, including 3-0 wins in both 2016 and 2017.

TEAM NOTES

• Michigan State enters 2021 with a 16-man roster, which includes four seniors, four juniors, two sophomores, and six freshmen.

• MSU allowed just four points to Canisius in a 3-0 sweep on Aug. 28. That figure is tied for the fewest points allowed by a Big Ten team in a regular-season match: (25-4 done four other times since 2008, most recently by Purdue over Rutgers in 2019).

• With an average of 1.75 service aces per set, the Spartans rank fourth in the Big Ten.

• MSU's four victories are all by 3-0 scores. Both of MSU's losses are to either a ranked team (No. 13 BYU) or a team receiving votes in the AVCA poll (Wright State).

• Against Weber State, MSU posted a season best .361 hitting percentage (50-11-108) and 53 digs - the most digs posted in three sets since posting 59 in a 3-0 sweep at College of Charleston in 2019. MSU had 50 kills, nine shy of its season best it accumulated in five sets vs. Wright State.

• MSU out-blocked Weber State by a 12-2 margin after posting a 13-1 blocking difference in the morning match against Dixie State. MSU's 13 was the most in three sets since a Sept. 2018 victory over Alabama-Birmingham (14).

• Three schools on MSU's non-conference schedule were NCAA Tournament qualifiers in 2020, while five Big Ten teams were selected. As a result of Covid, the NCAA Tournament consisted of just 48 teams in 2020, compared to the usual 64. A 64-team event returns in 2021.

• MSU has gone 145-30 (.844) in non-conference action in Cathy George's tenure (2005-21), and has never lost more than four games prior to the beginning of the Big Ten season.

• MSU currently ranks 11th in overall attendance this season, list which features six B1G teams among the top 15 attendance draws. MSU welcomed more than 5,000 fans over two days at the Auto-Owners Insurance Invitational, including a crowd of 3,072 for the finale vs. Wright State.

• Cathy George is one of four Big Ten head coaches to enter the 2021 season with 600+ career wins (656), along with Penn State's Russ Rose (1,309), Nebraska's John Cook (765), and Michigan's Mark Rosen (642). She ranks 13th among active coaches in coaching victories with a 658-440 overall record. She also ranks 45th all-time in head coaching victories.

PLAYER NOTES
• Four players have appeared in all six matches for MSU thus far: Naya Gros, Rebecka Poljan, Cecilee Max-Brown, and Talia Edmonds. Only Max-Brown and Edmonds have started all six.

• MSU returned a trio of middle blockers which includes two three-year starters in Gros and Rebecka Poljan, as well as junior Emma Monks. It has proven to be MSU's deepest and most prolific position.

• Poljan led the Spartans with a scorching .543 hitting percentage at BYU, with 3.11 kills and 1.00 blocks per set. In the Weber State match, she unloaded for 14 kills on 18 swings without an error (.778), which is the top hitting percentage of any player in the Big Ten in a match this season. She was an All-Tournament Team selection at BYU.

• Poljan is hitting .500 on the season (43-6-74), which ranks third nationally and second in the Big Ten. She is third on the team with 2.53 kills per frame.

• Naya Gros leads the Big Ten and the nation with 1.94 blocks per set on the season. She is averaging 1.13 kills per set as well.

• Gros was fierce at the net in the BYU weekend, putting up 20 total blocks (2.22/s), which included five solo and five block assists against Dixie State.

• Gros' five solo blocks tied the record for solo stuffs in a three-set match, last accomplished by Alyssa Garvelink vs. Michigan in 2015. Her 10 total blocks in the contest tied for the fifth-highest total in a three-set match, last posted by Sarah Gustin vs. Northwestern in 1998. The school record of 12 total blocks in a three-setter is held by Alexis Matthews vs. Michigan (November 2010).

• Gros' career average of 1.20 blocks per set ranks sixth on MSU's career list, and is close to on par with the career average of most recent two-time All-American Alyssa Garvelink, who averaged 1.21 blocks per set from 2014-17. Gros' 305 career block assists is 24 shy of getting her into MSU's all-time top 10 in that category, and her 363 total blocks is just 25 away from joining MSU's top-10 all-time list.

• Monks led MSU with three solo blocks in the Spartans' first home tournament. On the year, she's hitting .450, averaging 2.0 kills and 0.60 blocks per frame. Her hitting percentage ranks fourth in the Big Ten.

• Cecilee Max-Brown led MSU with 3.33 kills per frame over the three matches at BYU, added 2.5 digs per set, three assists and three blocks. She is one of two six-rotation players for the Spartans.

• Max-Brown is averaging 3.1 kills per set, and also contributing 2.0 digs per frame. She earned MVP honors at the Spartan Invitational in the opening weekend of the season.

• Max-Brown has a pair of double-doubles on the season, against Wright State (14k 10d) and Weber State (12k, 10d)

• Redshirt freshman Sarah Franklin returned to the active roster after an injury derailed her spring 2021. She is averaging 3.18 kills per set, hitting .246, and contributing 2.46 digs per frame. Franklin had a double-double against Wright State (8/28) with 12 kills and 14 digs.

• Junior Biamba Kabengele has started five of six matches for the Spartans, and is averaging career bests in both kills (2.6) and digs (2.3) this season. She had a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs against Wright State, establishing a new career best in digs.

• Molly Johnson has appeared in four matches for the Spartans, and the tallest Spartan is averaging 2.7 digs per frame, good for third on the team. She is also averaging 1.5 kills per set.

• Redshirt junior and captain Talia Edmonds earned the libero jersey this season, and has responded with a team-best 4.15 digs per set, which is good for ninth in the Big Ten. She is adding 0.90 assists per set as well.

• Edmonds recorded a career-best 21 digs against Weber State, and averaged. 5.0 digs over the weekend at BYU. She earned All-Tournament Team honors.

• MSU's most youthful position is at setter, but both sophomore incumbent Celia Cullen and freshman Julia Bishop have seen significant action.

• Bishop made her first career start at Brigham Young, delivering 26 assists, seven digs, and two blocks; she also recorded four kills on seven attempts without an error. Over three of MSU's six matches, she is averaging 9.38 assists, 1.50 digs, and contributed 1.13 kills per frame (.500 attack percentage).

• Cullen ranks fifth in the Big Ten with 10.83 assists per frame, and is sixth in aces per set (0.50) with her team-leading six service aces.

• First-year DS Grace Danziger played seven of nine sets in the BYU invitational. She averaged 0.71 digs per frame and added a service ace. She has appeared in four of six Spartan matches this season.

• Freshman outside Eleanor Stothoff saw her first action in a Green & White jersey in the match against BYU.

• Senior Lauryn Gibbs has missed the beginning of the season with an injury. She had seen a significant increase in her defensive role for MSU, and in 2020-21 averaged 0.36 assists and 1.28 digs per frame. She had the third-most service aces and boasted a .934 percentage. She has played in 63 matches (179 sets) over her first three seasons, averaging 1.4 digs and 0.2 assists per frame.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Julia Bishop

Celia Cullen

Grace Danziger

Talia Edmonds

Sarah Franklin

Lauryn Gibbs

Naya Gros

Molly Johnson

Biamba Kabengele

Cecilee Max-Brown

Emma Monks

Rebecka Poljan

Eleanor Stothoff