Nebraska Volleyball Takes on Michigan State on Friday for the 1st of 2 Matches

Going into Week 4 of B1G play, Nebraska has continued their dominance in the conference, and in the country. In what was hyped up to be a big match...

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Going into Week 4 of B1G play, Nebraska has continued their dominance in the conference, and in the country. In what was hyped up to be a big match against Purdue last Sunday turned into yet another Husker sweep.

The Huskers finally saw a B1G Player of the Week award go to a Huskers player, but of course it has to be shared with the one man show running at Penn State in Kennedy Martin. Harper Murray had one of the best weeks of her season, so far, against Washington and Purdue which earned her the award.

Against Purdue, Murray had 16 kills, and no errors, for a .640 hitting percentage. This is a career high for her. She also added 5 digs, 4 assists, 2 service aces, and 2 blocks. Against Washington, she had 12 kills, with only 1 error, for a .407 hitting percentage. She also recorded 7 digs, 3 blocks, 1 ace, and 1 assist on this match.

With all these numbers put together, Murray average 4.67 kills per set on a .519 hitting percentage, 2.00 digs per set, and she received 11 serves without a reception error. Nebraska’s last player of the week award came almost 2 years ago when Merritt Beason won it the week of November 6th, 2023.

The Huskers will have yet another road trip this weekend, this time heading to Michigan to take on the 2 B1G Michigan schools. They start with Michigan State on Friday night which means Husker fans will have to choose between volleyball and football. Volleyball is on B1G+ so people without a subscription won’t have a tough one.

Nebraska and Michigan State will meet Friday night, 10/17, in East Lansing and then again 8 days later in Lincoln on 10/25.

A Look at Michigan State

2024 Record: 13-18 (6-14 B1G)
NCAA Tournament Result: Did not qualify
Ranked Wins: #16 USC

Michigan State volleyball has been a team that has consistently been at the middle/bottom of the B1G standings year after year. They decided to make a coaching change after last season so they are another team with a new coach in the conference.

Kristen Kelsay took over in December of 2024 for the Spartans. She was a volleyball player at Michigan State herself so she knows what this program is about and what they need. This isn’t her first time as a Spartan coach as she was an assistant coach at MSU from 2015 to 2018. She also was an assistant at Minnesota and Northwestern.

Kelsay has proven herself in the non-conference matches going 10-0. They have also started out B1G play over .500 at 4-2 so far. They have beaten Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa, and #20 Indiana so far. That win over Indiana shows that they are a stronger team this year as Indiana has been having one of their best season yet.

In the preseason poll, Michigan State was picked to finish 14th 0f the 18 teams in the conference. They have the chance to finish higher than that with the start they have had so far. They did not have any players picked to be on the Preseason All-Conference Team this year.

Junior OH Karolina Staniszewska has proven to be one of the Spartans top players this season after only appearing in 30 sets in 2024. Last year, she was splitting time between playing outside and playing in the back row as a passing specialist. This year, it seems like she is only playing the outside as she has already played 59 sets. She is hitting .203% on 168 kills and has 28 blocks as well which is good for T-4th on the team.

Senior OPP Evie Doezema is another power hitter for the Spartans and will be a key to their offense Friday night. Last season, in her junior year, she was moved to middle blocker and played 86 sets. This year, she is back to opposite and is currently in 2nd on the team in kills with 151. She is still an amazing blocker as well as she has recorded 30 blocks, with 4 being solo.

Rounding out the OH squad for the Spartans is Freshman Bianca Mumcular and Junior Taylah Holdem. Holdem has been one of the best players for the Spartans in her past 2 seasons as the Spartans have been struggling. She earned a B1G Freshman of the Week honor during the 2023 season. Mumcular and Holdem have 118 and 104 kills, respectively. Both are also averaging over 2 kills a set and Holdem is at a impressive 4.16 kills/set.

Michigan State’s setter may be familiar to people in Lincoln as RS-Freshman Malayah Long went to Lincoln Southwest and is from Lincoln, NE. She spent her 1st year of college volleyball at Marquette, but didn’t play so she received a redshirt and transferred to Michigan State. She has received 2 B1G Freshman of the Week honors already this season.

Long is currently 3rd in the B1G in assists with 617 and 6th in assists/set with 10.28. She is tied with Staniszewska in blocks with 28 as well. She has played all 60 sets for the Spartans and will quickly be one of the best setters in the B1G if she stays on track with what she is doing.

Junior Zuzanna Kulig and Sophomore Breccan Scheck are the top middle blockers for the Spartans this season, but neither have cracked the Top 20 in blocks in the B1G. Scheck is a transfer from Washington State while Kulig has been at MSU her whole career. Kulig and Scheck have 41 and 44 blocks, respectively. This sounds like a lot, but the top blocker in the conference, Maryland’s Duru Gokcen, has 85 blocks total this season. Kulig and Scheck, together, have this amount.

Friday’s match is set to begin at 6:00pm CT which is an hour before football is set to kick off against Minnesota at 7:00pm CT. The match could be almost over with if Nebraska can pull out another sweep. The match can be streamed on B1G+ only.