One of those people is associate head coach Russ Carney, and the players he is working with are the two setters, freshman Halle Peterson and junior Kristen Kelsay.

“They’re like the quarterbacks of this team,” Carney said. “They come in early, get a couple of reps, and then the other players come in to all get on the same page.”

Unlike most teams that rely primarily on one setter for the team, both Kelsay and Peterson contribute equally for the Spartans. Just like a football team running a dual-quarterback offense, it is rare to see a team utilize two setters as much as the Spartans do.

“We’re running a 6-2 offense,” head coach Cathy George explained.

“And a lot of teams don’t like to do that because the setters are different in the way they deliver the ball, and it’s hard for the attackers to get used to the different feeds.”

Running that scheme causes Kelsay to play the back row, and when she rotates to the front row, Peterson comes in to relieve Kelsay of her duties. Also similar to football, changing the person who passes the ball could cause confusion amongst the offense, but that hasn’t been the case with the Spartan duo.

“Kristin and Halle complement each other very well,” George said. “They set the same type of ball, they both have great location, they work hard, they demand a lot from their teammates and they have that same style in them.”

Both of them work hand in hand with one another, but then again, what else is expected from two players who sometimes are mistaken as sisters? Not only do the two have the same hair color and physical build like sisters, but both learn vital lessons from each other to make themselves, and the team, better.

“She is a great teammate,” Kelsay said of Peterson. “We are the same position, so there is competition there, but it’s more of making each other better.”

Just because Kelsay is a junior and a captain of the team while Peterson is a freshman doesn’t mean that Kelsay hasn’t picked up attributes from her younger counterpart.

“She is very good at brushing things off, and that is something I am not as good at,” Kelsay said “She’ll look at me and start laughing (during matches), and that kind of eases me.”

Kelsay has learned from Peterson, but most of the teaching between the two comes from Kelsay, who has taken Peterson under her wing as a mentor.

Even before the preseason started, Kelsay was drilling and implementing MSU’s game into Peterson’s repertoire during one-on-one sessions in the summer.

Despite the competitiveness that comes with playing the same position, Kelsay’s team-first attitude is one reason why there is no drop-off between the two when they switch on and off during matches.

One is a captain and veteran on the team, the other is a freshman playing her first collegiate season, but just by watching them practice and play together, it’s easy to think that they are, in fact, the same player. Although nearly every player on the team shares a position with someone else, the relationship that the two setters share is unlike any other.

“We’re almost the same person,” Peterson said.

“We have the same attitude and the same personality, and I don’t think a lot of people that share the same position share that (chemistry).”