MSU volleyball, soccer face daunting weeks
Spartan volleyball team hosts highly ranked Ohio State tonight, Penn State Saturday
EAST LANSING - Michigan State volleyball coach Cathy George heard the roar behind her during last Saturday's match against Rutgers.
"Focus," she thought. "I'm yelling at the team, stay focused."
News of the MSU-Michigan football finished had spilled into Jenison Field House.
The Spartan volleyball team has its own opportunity to make noise this week — tonight against sixth-ranked Ohio State and Saturday versus fifth-ranked and two-time national champion Penn State (2013 and '14).
Both are home matches, the Buckeyes (18-2, 7-1 Big Ten) at 7 tonight, the Nittany Lions (17-2, 6-2) at 8 p.m. Saturday.
"It's huge," George said of this week. "And we're hanging in there, we're right in there and fighting for position."
The unranked Spartans are 13-6, 5-3 in the Big Ten, tied for sixth with Michigan, but just a game behind Penn State and two back of Ohio State. This weekend marks the midpoint of the Big Ten season.
"This is a big week for us," George said. "You control what you can control. You don't know who's going to beat who down the wire. Every year, something unexpected happens."
Sophomore middle blocker Alyssa Garvelink was named Big Ten player of the week for her 23 kills and .588 hitting percentage in last week's wins over Maryland and Rutgers.
MSU plans to raise a banner to honor All-American libber Kori Moster before Saturday night's match.
MSU SOCCER HITS THE ROAD: MSU's soccer team plays Northwestern at an MLS stadium Saturday in suburban Chicago, but its tonight's game at Akron that's the anticipated atmosphere.
The fifth-ranked Zips often draw several thousand fans for a program that was built by Kalamazoo native Caleb Porter, now coach of MLS' Portland Timbers. Akron won a national title in 2010. His former assistant, Jared Embrick, has the Zips back rolling in his fourth season.
"I think our guys like the hostile environments," said MSU coach Damon Rensing, whose club is 7-4-2 and 2-1-2 in the Big Ten. "Those are fun for us. In soccer, you don't always get to play in front of 70,000 home or away. When you've got 3,000, 5,000 (fans) screaming at our goalie, chanting and yelling, I think our guys feed off that."