“It’s hard to get that movement late in the season,” George said. “If the team is already in the poll and they haven’t lost, it’s hard to replace them.”

The latest poll, which came out Nov. 19, awarded MSU with 36 points, 66 away from cracking the top-25 list. With only two matches left in the season, the Spartans might not see themselves in that group, but to junior setter Kristen Kelsay, that is fine with her.

“That’s OK with us, we are those underdogs, and those people who teams aren’t ready for,” Kelsay said. “It’s cool to look at, but it doesn’t make or break our attitude.”

One reason the Spartans are flying under the radar might have something to do with their in-state rivals, as Michigan is playing a key role in discrediting MSU’s big wins. In the last month, MSU has topped then-No. 4 Nebraska and then-No. 10 Minnesota, only to have the Wolverines accomplish the same goal in the same weekends, since Big Ten teams usually play Michigan and MSU in back-to-back games.

Rather than crediting the Spartans and Wolverines to their solid play, Kelsay believes that the coaches who vote are finding the matches more at the fault of the top-10 teams, rather than MSU’s success.

“When teams come here and we beat them, and then they get beat by Michigan, they just attribute it to a bad weekend (by the opposing team),” Kelsay said.

With the challenges of getting into the top-25 and earning national recognition being difficult to gain, the Spartans are instead looking at the positives of their seemingly secret winning streak. Junior outside hitter Lauren Wicinski is one of those players looking at the glass half full despite the disappointment of missing the poll.

“That’s just more ammunition,” Wicinski said. “Some of those coaches don’t think we believe in the top 25, and we know that we deserve to be in the top 25.”