The sisters, who are both members of the MSU volleyball team, are admittedly as different as can be.

The brunette of the pair, outside hitter Ashley Schatzle, is a nursing senior and has been through it all — from school and personal stress to enduring the true commitment of being a student-athlete.

Her younger sister, Megan Schatzle, is an accounting freshman who still has yet to discover the wonder of college.

“(Ashley) has a more studious and quiet personality than I do — more of a stay at home and study mentality — I mean I do that, but not all the time,” Megan said. “She is also more competitive than I am.”

Nodding in agreement, Ashley notes that she tries to help her sister in every aspect of college life — not just in volleyball.

“I remember going into my sophomore year thinking, ‘Man I wish I would’ve known that last year.’ So I just try to help her out with little hints here and there and just hope she takes them and uses them,” Ashley said. “I hope she just takes personal and off-court lessons from college as well.”

So far, Megan has taken many of the education lessons her senior sister has offered.

“(Ashley) helps me out a lot with what I need for classes, studying and scheduling,” Megan said. “She really helps with the little things here and there that I may have not known, at first, on my own.”

The pair says the team sometimes likes to playfully antagonize the sisters.

“The team will sometimes sing the theme song from the show ‘Sister, Sister’,” Megan said.

“Megan blocks me a lot so everyone makes a big deal out of it,” Ashley jokingly added.

As much as the two talk about being different, for Megan, her sister was a big reason she decided to attend MSU — describing the chance to play volleyball alongside her older sister as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“Having Ashley on the team, I was around the program for a few years during high school so I got to know all the girls on the team,” she said.

“I knew I wanted to go to Michigan State, I really liked it here.”

This being Ashley’s last season, Megan hopes to learn as much from her sister as possible.

She will have big shoes to fill, with Ashley earning numerous awards including 2006 First Team All-Big Ten selection as well as the 2006 MSU Outstanding Offensive Player award, and currently stands with a career total of 408 digs.

“Volleyball wise, I want to learn about what she has to do as captain for when I’m a senior and all that goes along with it,” Megan said.