A week after a 2-0 weekend home stand, the volleyball team (5-1 overall) will hit the road to Indianapolis as they take on IPWF, Illinois State and Butler at the Butler Invitational.
Illinois State in particular will be an interesting matchup. Besides MSU having a 5-8 series record against the Red Birds, head coach Cathy George is a 1985 Illinois State graduate.
“We’ll be playing my alma matter and seeing the Red Birds in action,” George said. “They’ve all done a good job at getting out there in the early pre-conference.”
MSU is coming off of a weekend sweep of a pair of Pac-12 programs — Oregon and Oregon State. Led by the strong play of senior middle blocker Alexis Mathews and senior outside hitter Lauren Wicinski, the Spartans edged out last year’s national championship runner-up No. 20 Oregon in a 3-1 match.
Next day, MSU rode their momentum to a 3-0 sweep over Oregon State.
“It was important for us, not only to come out in that win against Oregon, but come out again Saturday and not have a letdown the next day,” senior setter Kristen Kelsay said. “That’s showed a little bit of maturity from us, that we can only use going forward to help us.”
George said playing high-caliber teams during pre-conference play is an early test for the team, and compared the Oregon win to the momentum-shifting wins over UCLA, Nebraska and Minnesota last season.
“I would look to Oregon as being one of the top teams in the Pac-12, and I know that they’re going to do very well,” George said. Oregon suffered a loss to Michigan the day after losing to MSU. “They have all the pieces that they need. “
Though MSU has gotten off to a solid start, the team has been without a full roster thus far. Sophomore setter Halle Peterson is out due to injury, and freshman outside hitter Chloe Reinig, who was slated to start, has been withheld from the rotation as she recovers from a bout of mononucleosis.
George has plugged players into new roles to fill the roster holes. Junior defensive specialist Ryian Hubbard has played setter, a position she hasn’t played since high school. Freshman middle blocker Autumn Christenson has played outside hitter, a position she’s never played.
“We have players who are capable of playing those spots no matter what injuries we have,” junior libero Kori Moster said. “No matter what happens, we still have the confidence that we have the ability to beat anyone, no matter who we put on the court.”
MSU will play IPFW at 3 p.m. Friday, Illinois State at 11 a.m. Saturday and Butler at 7 p.m. Saturday.
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