Kori Moster Announced for 2025 MSU Hall of Fame Induction
6/30/2025
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Alongside four other standout student-athletes and one iconic coach, three-time All-American and MSU volleyball standout Kori Moster has been selected for induction into the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Celebration will take place on Friday, Sept. 12. There will also be a special recognition of the 2025 MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class during the Michigan State-Youngstown State football game at Spartan Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 13. The MSU Athletics Hall of Fame, located in the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center, opened on Oct. 1, 1999, and displays plaques of the 187 previous inductees. The charter class of 30 former Spartan student-athletes, coaches and administrators was inducted in 1992.
Kori Moster
Volleyball (2011-14)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Kori Moster concluded a spectacular four-year career in the Green and White as a three-time All-American, three-time All-Region honoree, two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and three-time All-Big Ten selection. She still sits in third all-time in the Big Ten in career digs (2,218) in what is regarded as the most competitive conference in college volleyball. At Michigan State, Moster’s career digs top the second-highest total by over 700 digs. She also holds four of the top-10 single-season dig totals in Spartan history.
Now 10 years removed from her graduation, the three-time team captain can call herself a Michigan State Athletics Hall of Famer.
“I was very surprised when I answered the phone and it was (Director of Athletics) J Batt,” said Moster. “I was completely taken aback. I feel like there’s not many types of awards that could emotionally trigger me, and this one absolutely did. It was super special. I never actually thought that this would be an award that I would be receiving, so it’s very surreal.”
To make the moment even more special, Moster got the chance to talk to former co-captain and current Michigan State volleyball head coach Kristen Kelsay shortly after hearing the news of her induction.
“We jumped on a call and it immediately took me back to the bonded times of being captains together,” said Moster. “But it also reconnected me to the school. There’s nothing like having my old teammate being the new head coach and feeling so proud. I’m excited about this too, being able to support her. It’s just so special.”
“I think when I first heard that Kori was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, I was bursting with pride for her, not only for what she did for the Spartan volleyball program, but also my personal relationship with her and what she did for me over our time together as teammates and captains,” said Kelsay. “She’s one of the best to ever do it, not only at Michigan State, but in the Big Ten and the country. From being named MSU’s first Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year to helping really transform this program.”
Moster arrived in East Lansing in 2011 and appeared in all 34 matches for the Spartans during her freshman season. Behind a freshman-record 474 digs with Moster in the back row, MSU finished the season at 22-12, notching its highest win total since 1998, and made the second round of the NCAA Tournament after missing the tournament the year prior. She was honored as Big Ten Freshman of the Week three times and was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after a then-career-best 28 dig performance against Ohio State.
The accolades began pouring in for Moster during her sophomore season, who began her first of three seasons as a captain and one of two alongside Kelsay in 2012. She was named MSU’s first-ever Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and tallied 602 digs, good for second all-time in school history. The Spartans put together a 25-10 season that included a pair of top-10 B1G victories, highlighted by a 3-2 upset win over No. 4 Nebraska, and advanced to the Sweet 16 after a win over defending national champion UCLA in the second round, which Moster cites as a career-defining moment.
“The one memory that very much sticks out to me is when we played UCLA at UCLA in the NCAA Tournament and they were the reigning national champions,” said Moster. “We were on their home court and nobody expected us to win. It was one of those ‘whole bench flooded the floor’ moments, I actually remember the feeling of playing in that game. It could make me cry because it was just so much determination. It was such a grind, point after point. That team was huge and so strong and we just grinded it out. One of those moments you’ll just never forget.”
Moster earned Honorable Mention All-America honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (ACVA) at the conclusion of that season, the first Spartan libero to do so.
MSU reached its second Sweet 16 in as many years during Moster’s junior season in 2013. The Spartans posted a 23-12 record, while Moster recorded 592 digs to place third on the Spartans’ single-season list. She captured her second-straight Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award and was named a Third Team All-American by the AVCA.
Moster wrapped her final collegiate season with a third All-America nod, earning Honorable Mention honors from the AVCA in 2014 to become MSU’s only three-time AVCA All-American. MSU earned a bid to its fourth-straight NCAA Tournament and Moster reached the 2,000-career digs mark while tallying the fourth-best single-season total in program history with 550 digs. In addition to her Big Ten and AVCA honors, she also was a finalist for the 2014 Senior CLASS Award for volleyball, given to an NCAA Division I senior in each sport who exemplified excellence in the four areas of community, classroom, character and competition and was the recipient of MSU’s Chester Brewer Leadership Award in 2015.
“What made Kori special was her leadership and the way she was able to command the court, not only from her position as libero, but from her will to win,” said Kelsay. “Kori just had this impeccable competitiveness and will to win that she wouldn’t allow her team to lose. It was often seen from the outside with her defensive plays, but we felt it as her teammates through her heart and through her love for us and her love for Spartan volleyball.”
Moster was also a standout in the classroom during her four seasons in East Lansing, earning Academic All-Big Ten honors three times, and was twice named a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
At her induction this fall, she will be joined by her three former coaches at Michigan State – former head coach Cathy George and assistants Russ Carney and Mike Gawlik.
“Every single one of them are insanely special to me to this day,” said Moster. “I saw Cathy last weekend. Russ committed to me that he would stay coaching (at Michigan State) through my whole career and he did - he ended up retiring at the same time I was graduating. Mike is the one who taught me from a skill standpoint of what to change, what to lean into as a defender. I wouldn’t be the player I was in college without him.”
She also credits athletic trainer Lianna Hadden and academic coordinator Mandy Chandler for her success on and off the court and her teammates who helped shape her experience in East Lansing.
“My teammates in my class, we were in it together,” said Moster. “Kristen (Kelsay), who was my co-captain and helped me lead a team. My best friend and teammate Halle Peterson, who was my maid of honor, and I was her maid of honor. When people say it’s all about the people, she’s the one who can just make me teary-eyed even talking about her because I’m just so grateful for the friendship that this team brought to me and her.”
She is the sixth Spartan volleyball player to be inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame, joining Val Sterk (2007 inductee), Dana Cooke (2011), Diane Spoelstra (2012), Jenna Wrobel (2013), Kathy DeBoer (2022), and the first player from the 2000s to be inducted.
“I was actually taking a look at all of the names of the previously inducted players,” concluded Moster. “Those were the people when I was back playing, the names were present and known to me even though I never watched them play. It always felt like something that I wanted to be a part of, so just the opportunity to be amongst that group of women is pretty awesome.”
