Every team has injuries, but for the MSU volleyball team, most have come over the past two weeks.
Senior setter Nikki Colson, senior middle Jenny Rood, junior outside hitter Sara Villwock and sophomore middle Brooke Langston have all sat out because of injuries.
"It's hard when you come into practice and your starting setter is sitting out, your starting M1 (middle) is not dressed for practice and your L2 (leftside hitter) is wearing a boot," head coach Chuck Erbe said.
Colson has had tendinitis in both knees and shin splints in one leg, but the problems have gotten worse over the past two weeks.
Rood has been dealing with shin-splint problems as well, but it has become a big problem for her when she jumps and lands. Rood says it's hard to sit on the sidelines in practice, but she knows the coaches and trainers have the players' best interests in mind.
Villwock's injury stems from a problem she had last season, when she was a medical redshirt after having a stress fracture in her foot. She has been dealing with a similar problem the past couple weeks, as the same bone in the same foot seems close to breaking again.
"Sara came to us with three stress fractures, now her foot is breaking down again," Erbe said. "She has a lot pain in her left foot. She's been wearing a boot for two or three weeks, so there is not any pressure on the foot when she's not playing."
Langston broke her finger two weeks ago in practice and hasn't played since. The doctors told her four weeks, which gives her a possibility of coming back for the NCAA Tournament in a week and a half. Langston is still the only MSU player to hit over .600 in any match. She accomplished that feat three times, against Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.
"Brooke Langston has been on the floor through the entire rejuvenation," Erbe said. "She's been on the floor the entire time when we won seven of eight matches.
"(Langston) was a huge emotional loss, she's our best blocker and she was one of our leading hitters during that streak. She brought a lot of personal energy to the floor and took a lot of pressure off other people."
Due to the injuries, the Spartans had a rough match against Minnesota on Friday, where everything just went wrong.
"Personally, it felt like a different mix out (on the floor)," junior outside hitter Kim Schram said. "We haven't played a lot together this week in practice, but we've played together 20 something matches. One week of not playing together - it shouldn't change that much."
The coaches and players are optimistic that this week of practice will go better and the team will be able to battle through the injuries, get an NCAA Tournament bid and win some matches.
"It's going to be important that we have Sara, Nikki and Jenny in practice this week," Erbe said. "Practice is going to be key this week; how many people we have and how much continuity we can have going into this weekends matches will be important."
