In a press conference Tuesday, head coach Cathy George had positive words for the way her veteran seniors set the weekend tone, especially in the wake of the dominating weekend performance of Big Ten competition.

“As far as going back over the last weekend, I think we had two opponents (in Oregon and Oregon State),” George said. “Looking at the warm-ups, the way they were (playing), we were looking at Oregon and we were saying, ‘Oh, they’re pretty tough.’”

Mathews got the offense going with the first kill of the game, and never let up as she posted 11 combined kills in the first two sets.

Wicinski took over from there and slammed in 12 kills in the final two sets, including the final match-winning kill.

“Alexis is off on her senior year really dominating in the front row with her blocking and her attacking,” George said. She is “pretty hard to stop.”

Mathews, who currently is seventh in the nation in hitting percentage (.509), has formed a two-headed attack with Wicinski that has spread MSU’s offense and made the game easier for the rest of the team.

“The players that are on the pins, Lauren Wicinski, and some of our freshmen who are on the other pens, really benefitted from Alexis Mathew’s strong play in the early going against Oregon,” George said. “And then the next day was kind of flipped around. The outside hitters started taking over, and then Alexis Mathews cashed in at the end.”

Junior libero and co-captain Kori Moster said Mathews helped the offense achieve balance, something team members prides themselves on.

“To have both of them and see people like Autumn and Taylor all step up in different areas as an offensive weapon, that’s what we’re striving for the whole season,” Moster said.

With the Big Ten going 11-0 over the weekend, MSU will need the duo-attack from its veterans to continue as Big Ten play is set to start in the coming weeks.

Nine Big Ten teams currently are represented in the AVCA Coaches poll — a figure that speaks to the strength of the conference.

Although MSU moved up five spots in this week’s polls, senior setter and co-captain Kristen Kelsay said the team can’t relax yet.

“It’s only week two,” Kelsay said. “So it is exciting to see that, but we also know that we have a lot of work to do. There’s nine teams in the top 25, and we’re not even in Big Ten play yet. That shows not only the strength of the Big Ten, but how much work we need to do.”