The MSU volleyball team is packing its bags for California's golden coast.
And if things go well, the Spartans could soon be in Hawaii.
But it won't be a vacation.
Rather than taking their game to the beaches, the Spartans will hit the hardwood against Utah (27-3) at 8:30 p.m. Friday in the first round of the NCAA Division 1 Women's Volleyball Championship at UCLA.
MSU (19-11 overall, 10-10 Big Ten), which is riding a streak of four wins in six matches, will be making its 11th NCAA Tournament appearance in school history and its first since 2003.
"Utah is a very good team — no doubt about it," said MSU head coach Cathy George, who will be making her first tournament appearance with the Spartans after taking over the team last season.
"But in our mind, we've seen three to four teams that are rated in the top 10 in the nation, and we see them night in and night out. We feel that the teams like Penn State and Minnesota and Wisconsin have all prepared us for what we will see on Friday night."
While the Spartans finished sixth in the conference, they had the third-highest hitting percentage (.279) in the conference and led the Big Ten in both kills (16.92) and assists (15.63) per game.
"It's going to be different for both of our teams to get used to each other," junior outside hitter Katie Johnson said. "It's going to give us an advantage because we've seen big name teams, big strong teams all year long. And as far as Utah, they didn't come from quite as strong of a conference, and that's going to work to our advantage."
Utah, which finished undefeated in the Mountain West Conference and has been ranked in the top 10 in the country all season, is making its ninth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
"Coach said the way we play and our style of play would be best for Utah," junior outside hitter Ashley Schatzle said. "We don't really need to change anything — just play our normal game."
Utah's loss to Colorado State in the MWC Tournament Championship ended a 25-game winning streak.
"It's going to be really nice because we're two completely different teams," Johnson said. "We're going to play different styles of volleyball. We're both going to be physical teams. Our quick offense is really going to surprise them.
"They're more 'put the ball down.' We're more 'mix it up — confuse their blockers', so I think that's going to help."
While the Spartans are considered the underdogs Friday, they have plenty of experience in the NCAA Tournament to draw on. They've played 21 postseason games in the last 12 years, including a Final Four berth in 1995.
George is no stranger to the postseason, either. In 1989, she became the first female coach to reach the NCAA Final Four, leading Texas-Arlington to the national semifinals.
"It's very important to me to have this team experience the NCAA Tournament — to get into it, to take it as far as we could, so that the taste would be there, the hunger would be there and that we could play off the experience that we would have in order to go further and further from this moment on," George said.
"Now, we have six matches until the actual national championship match, and if we can put them in pairs of twos and go from one site to the next site, you can put yourself in position and anything can happen."
