The hot starts to this season and last season are historic. The last time MSU started the season this strong, the team set a program record with 41 wins.

Although both teams have the same record through nine games, MSU faced improved competition this year. The Spartans did not play a single team from a Power Four conference until they reached Big Ten play last year. MSU has played four of its nine nonconference games against Power Four schools in 2026.​

Head coach Kristen Kelsay said this was by design to better prepare her team for a run to the postseason.

“I think that our average RPI for nonconference was about 240; this year our average RPI for our nonconference is 130,” Kelsay said. “If we are gonna really do what we say we are gonna do, which is be back in the postseason, then we have to prepare earlier. Last year I didn’t coach a single athlete in a single match. We got to teach them how to win; this year we know how to win, and now we have to go beat some people.”

Michigan State will round out nonconference play with Drake at 6 p.m. on Sept. 18 and Wright State at 6 p.m. on Sept. 19 at Breslin Center. Games can be streamed live on Big Ten Plus.

With a more difficult schedule to open the year with great success, a team's mentality before and after each game can sway. However, Kelsay has made an emphasis on her team to stay in the moment to avoid looking ahead to conference play.

“We talk about this book of team 2026 being different chapters,” Kelsay said. “One thing we really talk about is being present. We can’t worry about the Big Ten yet; we can’t worry about the tournament until we beat Drake and Wayne State. We have one final push before we get to take a deep breath and go into the next chapter. I have never said you have to win every match. For us, it is always, ‘Are you answering the challenge in front of you?’”

After going undefeated in nonconference play last season, the Spartans went 8-12 in Big Ten play. This time around, MSU's sights are set on higher marks in conference play. Kelsay felt her players have accepted the challenge of greater expectations.​

“Where we finished last year and laid the foundation, the challenge this year is to grow on that,” Kelsay said. “We don’t want to match that; we don’t just want to be a bubble team. So then what I have to do as our leader and head coach is I have to give them new opportunities to accomplish those goals. That started with scheduling a tougher nonconference schedule to prepare us for the Big Ten tournament for the first time. I think that they have risen to that challenge, and they have understood that we did that because they are ready for it.”

This weekend, the Spartans will compete in the Kathy DeBoer Invitational at Breslin Center. The Kathy DeBoer Invitational is an annual volleyball round-robin tournament held at Michigan State in honor of DeBoer, an MSU volleyball star from 1975-78. In 2022, she was inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame.

Kelsay recognized the similar start to the historic 1975-76 team, but said the significance goes further than the court.

“I think every team writes its own story,” Kelsay said. “But for our storyline to be synonymous with that team, and not only the success they had but what they have done for women’s athletics, is very special. Kathy DeBoer will speak to us this weekend, and for us to literally and figuratively stand on her shoulders, not only for women’s volleyball but for women’s athletics as a whole, is pretty incredible.”