Michigan State University Athletics
Spartans Take Part in Fifth Annual Big Ten Volleyball Media Day
8/4/2026 11:01:00 AM | Volleyball
The Big Ten, which is in its fifth year hosting the event, is the only conference in the country to host an in-person media day for collegiate volleyball.
Kelsay, Clayton and Staniszewska spoke with reporters, broadcasters and content creators from throughout the college volleyball landscape to discuss the upcoming 2026 season, which gets underway on Friday, Aug. 28 when MSU hosts 2025 NCAA Tournament team Miami (Fla.) inside the Breslin Center.
Check out the sights and scenes from media day, along with quotes from the Spartans' press conference.
KRISTEN KELSAY: A lot of gratitude to all of you for being here and putting on this media day. It's first-class. We're grateful not only to be part of the Big Ten, but to be here representing women's volleyball. Thank you all for being here and sharing our stories.
Q. Describe your first year as a head coach.
KRISTEN KELSAY: How much time do you have (smiling)?
It was probably the most challenging and also the most gratifying year of my life. I learned the depth of the relationship that you can have as a head coach with these young women, and the impact you can make. I loved being an assistant. I wanted to be an assistant, was an assistant for a long time, and loved that role. Going into a head coaching role, I was worried if that would change.
It did change, right? Now I'm on the other side of the table. But I realized the depth and impact I could have on these young women were so much greater.
I learned a lot about leadership. I learned a lot about managing people. I have a staff of seven and 19 young women. I got to take care of 19 hearts and manage a staff of seven. So, learning how to lead people and lead with our values—honestly, we had a great year. It was the best year since 2017, which was that Elite Eight run.
I'm most proud of the people and the foundation we laid with our values. That's what's going to propel Michigan State to where we want to go. What was most important to me in year one was that we get it right with our people and how we do things, and it was pretty exciting to see the wins come with it.
Q. You took part in the Big Ten Life Series. In Oregon, you participated in Selma. How did this environment teach you something new, and how did it differ in terms of getting that learning opportunity from two different regions of the country?
KY CLAYTON: Big Life was super cool. It is not very often that you get to meet athletes in a casual setting. It was super cool to learn about history and how it can tie into who we are now.
I met a lot of cool people and we did a lot of cool things. Those are for sure memories I will never forget. Just another kudos to the Big Ten for putting on something like that.
Q. What are this year's expectations after last season?
KRISTEN KELSAY: Yeah, I think I really had no expectations last year. I told the media and I told our team, "I'm not going to put a ceiling on you." Where we were picked, around 16th last year to finish in the Big Ten, was not going to be where we were going to finish. We ended up finishing tied for 10th.
Like I said, our mission for Michigan State volleyball is to be a winning program, and that is in percentages and people. So that's our mission, and how we do that is through our values. Our mission is that we're going to win, but we're going to win with our people and with how we do this—with integrity, our values, and then with percentages.
So, yes, we had a winning program. But we know that to say we are a winning program means going back to postseason play. One of the things we talked about in our first meeting last week is that this season has five chapters. We can't worry about chapter five until we read chapter one. Chapter one is preseason training. We can't worry about our non-conference opening, the Big Ten tournament, or the NCAA tournament until we work very hard in this first chapter.
Then comes non-conference, which sets the stage for the rest of the chapters. If we're focused on the postseason, we have to crush non-conference play, which is a huge step forward in terms of quality of opponent and RPI from last year.
We're so excited for the opportunity to compete in the Big Ten tournament. But we can't worry about the Big Ten tournament unless we win enough games in the Big Ten season, which ultimately will allow us to play December volleyball in the NCAA.
This year, everyone is going through this for the first time. This will be my 15th season playing and coaching in the Big Ten. This is the first time that every single one of us is navigating a season where you play everybody once and have a Big Ten tournament.
So now more than ever, it's going to be important that I lead these young women in staying present. If all we're focused on is going back to the NCAA tournament since 2017—you hear that a lot—we're going to miss all of the moments in between that will lead us there.
Q. Coach, your excitement about the Big Ten tournament—to have that as something to work toward, what does this mean?
KRISTEN KELSAY: I mean, I always say I'm a little biased. I've only been in the Big Ten as a player, an assistant, and now a head coach. It's the most elite conference in college volleyball.
So now to have this platform where we get to put all 15 Big Ten teams in one place—from an attendance standpoint, a quality-of-play standpoint, and having it nationally televised—we are excited. Even on our Big Ten head coaches call, we are ready, our team is ready, the Big Ten is ready, and the country is ready for a Big Ten tournament.
That is absolutely one of our goals: to make that tournament and then keep going through the postseason.
Q. Players, how might that change things this season? What is your level of excitement to have the postseason tournament?
KAROLINA STANISZEWSKA: It's obviously something new, and nobody has ever done that in the Big Ten. I think as players, we are very excited to finally take the next step into Big Ten play and have another chance to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, which is something amazing. It's definitely something I look forward to.
KY CLAYTON: Yeah, I think it's super cool. It's just another opportunity to compete and show off our skills. We're really looking forward to it.
Q. Talk about the five-for-five rule passing.
KRISTEN KELSAY: Yeah, I talked to the whole team about it when it happened. I said, "Anytime we add a player to our roster or there's a big change in the NCAA, I always want you to hear from me how this impacts you."
We had a team meeting about it, and then I had individual player dinners at my house, or team dinners by class this summer. We talked about how it would affect every class. For the freshmen, it affects them differently. Some of them redshirted, which changes what their five-year academic plan looks like. Then we had conversations with our seniors.
We said we're not going to make December decisions in June. A lot is going to play out through the season. We've already had multiple conversations about what this looks like for our senior class and our 2027 class. We're going to keep those lines of communication open because there are a lot of conditions and variables that will affect these young women's futures.
Making that decision at the end of the season is, in our opinion, the best time for them to stay present. Like we talked about with our chapters, staying present and having this potential final season, then deciding what's best for their future, career, and playing career is key.
We're really excited about the opportunity, but also really trying to stay present. These are our seniors now, and this is how we're going to honor and recognize them. When the time comes, we'll make decisions moving forward.
Q. Talk about the five-for-five rule passing.
KAROLINA STANISZEWSKA: Yeah, it's definitely something we're going to think about. As Coach said, we're going to make the decision in December after looking at how the season goes.
I think it's very exciting to have the opportunity to do it over again in a fifth year.
KY CLAYTON: Yeah, I think it's very exciting, but we have a lot of seniors this year. A lot of them are very different people from all walks of life. Like Coach said, we're not going to make December decisions in June because a lot could change between now and then. We'll change as people and as a team.
We're just going through our chapters and supporting each other as best as we can. When we get to December, we get to December.
Q. For the players, how are you improving your game this season?
KAROLINA STANISZEWSKA: I would say confidence as a team. Obviously, we have all practiced and grown together over the past eight months. We want to find our own common language that we are all going to speak, and find our flow in the team that is going to help us throughout the season.
On top of that, confidence. Obviously, that's something each team needs, along with finding the roles that each player is going to have throughout the season.
KY CLAYTON: I think for me personally, leadership. As a team, we graduated our two captains, who were our two biggest leaders last year. Just stepping up, whether that's as a captain, on the leadership council, or in smaller ways, is key. As a team as a whole and individually, leadership was something we all stepped up in during the spring.
KRISTEN KELSAY: I will tell you, Ky was our summer leader, and she crushed it. She rose to that challenge.
Q. What's something underrated you're working on this season?
KRISTEN KELSAY: One thing we're really passionate about—I don't know if it's underrated—isn't your serve-pass ratio, hitting percentage, or error percentage. We talk a lot about our out-of-system setting.
We track how often our out-of-system setting is located in the target area where we want it to be. In the Big Ten, you have to apply pressure and get a swing. So we have a technical coordinator who puts together a visual chart of where the set was, and then shows on the floor what happened from that chart. You see all the sets that were wide, half of which resulted in errors, or sets that were off, half of which resulted in kills for the other team.
That's one unique thing we're really passionate about every day. We work on out-of-system setting so we can take swings and apply pressure in the toughest conference in the country.
Q. Coach, you've been able to add to your roster effectively through the portal and with first-year players. Can you tell us how the new faces are settling in, and how excited you are about the returning veterans and newcomers?
KRISTEN KELSAY: We're fired up. I would say we added really perfect pieces to complement our roster. We added four athletes in January—two were transfers, two were incoming freshmen—and then we added two pieces over the summer. We have quite a few new faces and people who will add to our roster and see playing time this fall.
Like Ky and Karolina said earlier, we have a returning core. Almost every starter returns from last year. We graduated one starter in Evie Doezema. We're really excited about the success this team had last year and how we can add some physicality and depth to our roster to go through a tougher non-conference schedule and then the Big Ten season.
Q. Several players on the roster this year can be legitimate six-rotation point-scoring threats. Do you feel you have the flexibility to expand your attack this year?
KRISTEN KELSAY: Yeah, one thing we worked on a lot this spring was our back-row attack—our big attack—and having different routes based on where the middle goes. Every pin hitter we have can pass, which is a privilege for us. Even the pins we added—freshmen Madi and Colbie, and Alanna Bankston from Louisville—can pass. They can all hit from the back row.
It's been fun to add that layer to our offense, something you didn't see until late in the season last year with Bianca moving to the opposite. Now we have these players flying out of the back row on a lot of different routes. That's been a fun addition to our offensive arsenal.
We updated our offense a bit this spring. A big focus for us was the speed, tempo, and set location of our offense, and they did a great job.
We came in on day one and played three sets to see how we were doing. They did a great job over the summer of maintaining that and getting the newcomers up to speed.
Q. How will it be playing the Big Ten/SEC Challenge in Ann Arbor?
KY CLAYTON: Yeah, it will definitely be a little strange. Luckily, it's close to home, so hopefully we'll have a ton of Spartan fans there. Hopefully, it will feel like a home match even if we're not playing against Michigan.
Q. Coach, such a strong start last year. What did you learn over year one in terms of the stamina it takes to finish out a season in the Big Ten?
KRISTEN KELSAY: Yeah, we always talk about how it's a marathon, not a sprint, right? I'm really fortunate to have a sports scientist who is at every practice and works directly with volleyball. Even right now, we're planning our preseason based on our load ramp-up—week one versus what percentage that load is of a typical in-season week. That's something I lean on heavily, especially as a newer head coach, to protect their bodies and get us to play December volleyball.
We talk a lot about how we didn't have the November last year that we wanted. Like compound interest, what we did in January gives us a better November. What we did in the summer when coaches weren't able to be there gives us an opportunity to have a better November. How I take care of their bodies and how we train now allows us to peak at the right time so we can finish stronger this year than last year.
We went 10-0 in non-conference play, which was super exciting and really built confidence, as Karolina mentioned. I want to show this team how to win and how to respond to that success. Then we walked into the Big Ten and saw a different level of physicality. Our non-conference schedule this year looks a little different. We're going to see some of that physicality earlier, which will be a good challenge leading into the Big Ten season.
Q. What has Kristen brought to this program?
KY CLAYTON: I think just the people she's added to this program. We talk a lot about wanting to be a winning program, but we can't do that without our people. Not only Kristen as our head coach, but our support staff as well. We have a lot of returning players, but the people she has brought into this program are just so special.
Yes, they raise the level of volleyball, but they also raise the level of our program as a whole and our Spartan family. I think that's probably the biggest thing she's brought to this program.
