Michigan State volleyball is back home Tuesday night for a rare early-season clash of unbeatens, with the Spartans hosting Western Michigan at 6 p.m. inside the Breslin Center.
MSU comes in at 5-0 and riding a 14-set winning streak after a sharp week that included neutral-site sweeps of LSU on Sept. 1 and South Carolina on Sept. 2, followed by a straight-set win at Central Michigan on Sept. 5. Western Michigan arrives at 6-0, setting up a matchup between two teams that have not yet dropped a match.
The Spartans have been overwhelming at the net. They hit a conference-best .347 across last week’s three matches and pushed that number to .463 against South Carolina, their best single-match team hitting percentage since a .475 performance against Oakland on Sept.
16, 2022. On the other side, MSU limited its opponents to a combined .092 hitting percentage, which ranked second in the conference over the same stretch.
That production has MSU sitting atop the national leaderboard in hitting percentage at .356 through five matches.
The start also carries a bit of history. After opening 10-0 in 2025, Michigan State is 5-0 to begin this season for the second year in a row, something the program had not done since 2011-12. And the current 14-set run is the team’s longest since a 23-set streak during the 2018 season, spanning Sept. 1 at UNC through Sept. 15 against Western Michigan.
A big part of the surge has been the play of senior outside hitter Alanna Bankston, who piled up a team-high 38 kills over the three matches, good for 4.22 kills per set. She had a career-high 18 kills against South Carolina while hitting .548, then followed it with 13 kills at Central Michigan on .542 hitting. Bankston’s 18-kill effort was the most in a three-set match in the Big Ten so far this season, and her 4.22 kills per set ranked fourth in the conference last week.
Karolina Staniszewska has been just as central to the offense. The senior outside hitter led MSU with 14 kills against LSU and added a season- and team-best 14 digs in the win over South Carolina. She leads the Spartans with 53 kills this season and is right behind Bankston in kills per set at 3.53.
Michigan State also got strong work from its middle blockers. Senior Zora Hardison and junior Carmen Waye combined for strong blocking numbers over the three-match stretch, with Hardison averaging 1.38 blocks per set and Waye at 1.29.
Hardison had five total blocks against LSU, while Waye matched that total against South Carolina. Waye added a season-high 11 kills against the Gamecocks on .688 hitting and set a team and career high with three service aces against LSU.
Across last week’s matches, she finished with 17 kills on a conference-best .640 hitting percentage.
Junior middle blocker Breccan Scheck made her first start of the season against Central Michigan and responded with a team-high three total blocks in the Spartans’ win.
At setter, redshirt sophomore Malayah Long kept the offense moving. She led MSU in assists in both matches against LSU and South Carolina with 29 and 35, then added 16 while sharing setting duties with Kalea Norton, who had 15, at Central Michigan.
Long is averaging 9.87 assists per set this season. She also led the conference last week with 1.00 service aces per set and matched a career high with five against South Carolina, tying for the second-most aces in a single match by a player in the conference this season.
Defensively, senior libero Lia Schneider continued to steady the back row. She finished last week with 22 digs, ranking second on the team behind Staniszewska, and posted a team-high nine against LSU before adding eight at Central Michigan. Schneider also reached the 1,000-career-dig mark at Central Michigan and now has 1,004.
Western Michigan has built its own perfect start, with wins at Omaha and against Chicago State and Louisiana Tech last week. Head coach Colleen Munson is in her 22nd season leading the Broncos.
Michigan State owns the all-time series 24-10-1, including a 12-3-1 record in East Lansing. The teams last met in a 3-1 MSU win in Kalamazoo on Sept. 8, 2025, and the Spartans last lost to Western Michigan on Sept. 11, 2024 in East Lansing.
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Michigan State kept rolling with another clean night at Western Michigan, extending its perfect start with a sixth straight win and a fifth consecutive sweep. The Spartans looked sharp in all phases, leaning on senior leadership from Alanna Bankston, Zora Hardison and Karolina Staniszewska while controlling the match in kills, digs, service aces and blocks.
The early run has given this team a look of growing inevitability, and it is doing more than just padding the record. Michigan State is piling up sets in bunches and finding answers from experienced players across the lineup, which is exactly the kind of balance that tends to travel well once the schedule stiffens and the season starts asking different questions. [Read more 🡒]