In a weekend filled with many scares, the MSU volleyball team overcame each and every one en route to a championship in the Coca-Cola/MSU Volleyball Classic.

Perseverance could best describe how the Spartans defeated a Big East school, an in-state foe and a Southeastern Conference school all in a matter of 30 hours.

The No. 15 Spartans’ weekend ended with a down-to-the-wire contest against the No. 26 ranked South Carolina. After the Gamecocks played what MSU head coach Chuck Erbe called a “perfect performance” in a 30-20 win in game one, the Spartans rallied back to take the next three games by scores of 31-29, 33-31 and 34-32.

“It took a lot of perseverance, a lot of heart, a lot of guts and a lot of teamwork,” junior setter Nikki Colson said. “It was about looking into each other’s eyes and saying ‘we are going to win this game.’

“It’s not about skill at that point, it’s about what you have in your heart.”

After a 12-minute intermission following game two, both teams took the floor knowing what was at stake.

Game three went wire to wire, with no team ever taking control of the match. The Spartans pulled out the second of three extra-point-game victories.

Game four was nearly a mirror of game three, except with a fitting ending to the tournament.

The Spartans had their fourth chance to wrap up the championship, up 33-32. Junior outside hitter Sara Villwock stood on the left half of the court waiting to serve.

As she connected with the ball, the floater gingerly hit the top of the net, barely trickling over and falling on the Gamecock side of the floor.

“I was like ‘Oh my God Sara, don’t miss it,’” said Villwock, who was later named tournament MVP. “I kind of took a little bit off it because I didn’t want it to go out. And I saw it hit the net and I was like ‘oh my God.’”

It was the perfect ending to a contest one could watch over and over again countless times.

“I’ve been coaching a lot of years but that is one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen,” Erbe said.

“To see how we got beat in game one, it was an unthinkable comeback.

“We were able to overcome our own deficiencies, and that’s the sign of a great team.”

MSU was down by as many as eight points in game two before three consecutive block solos from senior middle Angela Morley, Villwock and senior outside hitter Kyla Smith brought the Spartans within one point.

“We made a couple errors, and I thought Michigan State made a couple key plays in game two,” South Carolina head coach Kim Christopher said.

“There was a crazy rally where they took the ball over with one hand and ended up scoring on it, and I thought that was the turning point as they went ahead.

“We pretty much gave them that game.”

Before the championship match, the Spartans had two other notable contests. MSU’s weekend started with a Friday night contest against Georgetown. It was MSU’s first match of the season and the usual kinks were visible from the get-go.

With more than 1,000 screaming MSU faithful behind their green and white, the Spartans quickly showed why they are ranked 15th in the nation.

“It was just awesome playing in front of a pumped-up volleyball environment,” Villwock said.

“It was a shock at first, but once people started making some digs and some kills, we began to relax and it settled everybody down.

“We knew we were going to have those jitters in the beginning, but we got them out quickly, which was good.”

The Spartans rallied from an early deficit to beat the Hoyas in three games, 30-25, 30-13 and 30-24.

“Really, one of the things you look at is attack percentages, your serving and your receiving, and we got A’s in all of those,” Erbe said.

Following their late-night contest, the Spartans were back in action for a 10 a.m. Saturday contest with in-state opponent Oakland.

With teams from three major conferences rounding out the group of four, Oakland was mainly supposed to be another team to complete the field, especially since the Golden Grizzlies have only been in Division I for five years.

But with a matchup that looked very lopsided on paper, Erbe felt it was a good time to give his reserves some action.

“I figured in game one we were going to struggle because we had four new players in the lineup,” Erbe said.

The Spartans won the three games by scores of 30-24, 30-20 and 30-18.

The weekend was only the beginning of what the Spartans will do in 2002-03, according to several players.

MSU will tune-up for the regular season at this weekend’s Western Michigan Volleyball Invitational.

“The more relaxed we are as a team, the more fire we play with, and I think that’s what you saw in this tournament,” sophomore outside hitter Kim Schram said. “And that’s only in this tournament.

“You can only imagine what we’re going to be like in the season.”