EAST LANSING, Mich. –\u00a0Michigan State volleyball opened the 2026 season with a thrilling five-set win over Miami Friday evening in the Breslin Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MSU moves to\u00a01-0 (0-0 B1G) with the victory, while Miami falls to 0-1 (0-0 ACC). The Spartans improved to 36-18 in season openers all-time and earned their 15th-straight season opening win at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both MSU and Miami received votes in the AVCA Preseason Poll.<\/p>\n
The Spartans hit an impressive .352 in the match and led the Hurricanes in kills (69-to-49), total blocks (9-to-8) and service aces (10-to-4). Miami held a slight 46-44 edge in digs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An\u00a0All-Big Ten and all-region selection last season, senior Karolina Staniszewska<\/a> picked up where she left off in 2025 with a team-leading and career-high-tying 23 kills on .320 hitting Friday night. She just missed a double-double with nine digs and tallied a pair of blocks while adding one service ace. Junior opposite Hayley Ogden<\/a> had a spectacular debut in the Green and White, posting 14 kills on 22 swings with just one error to hit .591 on the night. \u00a0<\/p>\n Senior middle blocker Zora Hardison<\/a>, who also made her debut in an MSU jersey Friday, led MSU with six total blocks and put down nine kills on .444 hitting. Junior middle blocker Carmen Waye<\/a> had eight kills on a .615 clip and tallied five blocks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Redshirt sophomore setter Malayah Long<\/a> provided a team-best 52 assists, surpassing 50 assists in a match for the third time in her career, and eclipsed 1,000 career assists in the match. She also led MSU with three service aces.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senior libero Lia Schneider<\/a> and senior outside hitter Alanna Bankston<\/a>\u00a0each posted a team-best 10 digs. \u00a0<\/p>\n Fueled by a Long service ace to start the match, MSU used a pair of Miami service errors, two kills from Staniszewska and an ace from Waye to take an early 6-2 lead in the first set. Four-straight points from the Spartans forced a Hurricane timeout at\u00a0a 15-6 MSU lead with a Staniszewska kill, block from Waye and Bankston, service ace from Schneider and dump from\u00a0Long. The Hurricanes got as close as within five points at 21-16, but a Bankston kill and block from Waye and Long extended the MSU lead to seven to force another Miami timeout at 23-16. Bankston put down a kill to get the Spartans to set point at 24-18 and a service error from Miami ended the first set, 25-19.\u00a0<\/p>\n MSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set after a kill from Bankston and pair of Miami attacking errors. Miami followed with three points of its own to tie the set at 3-3, but back-to-back blocks from Ogden and Waye and a solo block from Hardison put the Spartans back up by a pair. The Hurricanes got back within two at 13-11, but a kill from Hardison and another dump from Long helped the Spartans to a three-point, 15-12 advantage at the media timeout. The Spartans extended their lead out of the timeout to 16-14 with a Bankston kill. Back-to-back MSU errors got the Hurricanes back within one, but a Waye kill and Miami error extended the Spartan lead back to four to force a Miami timeout at 20-16. Three-straight points from the Hurricanes then forced an MSU timeout at 21-20 before\u00a0back-to-back points from MSU from a Hardison kill and Ogden ace forced the Hurricanes into a timeout of their own at 23-20. A Staniszewska kill got the Spartans to set point at 24-21, but five-straight points from the Hurricanes helped Miami take the second set in extra points and even the match, 26-24.\u00a0<\/p>\n The teams traded points back-and-forth in the third set with neither team taking more than a two-point lead early. A 4-1 MSU run sparked by back-to-back Ogden kills put the Spartans up 12-11 before the Hurricanes used a kill and MSU service error to tie the set back up at 14-14. Another Ogden kill gave the Spartans a 15-14 lead at the media timeout.\u00a0After back-and-forth points through 19-19, another kill from Ogden and a Staniszewska kill put the Spartans up 21-20 to force a Miami timeout. MSU extended its lead to 23-21 with kills from Hardison and Staniszewska, but three-straight Hurricane points put Miami up by a pair to force MSU into a timeout at a 24-23 Miami lead.\u00a0Miami took the third set, 25-23, after an MSU attacking error out of the timeout to take a 2-1 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n Miami took a 6-4 lead in the fourth set before a 4-0 run from the Spartans capped off by a Bankston kill gave MSU an 8-6 lead.\u00a0Miami then\u00a0called a timeout after a huge four-point swing from the Spartans with kills from Ogden and Staniszewska, a block from Staniszewska and Hardison and a service ace from Waye put MSU up 14-9. A Staniszewska kill and block from Long and Hardison helped the Spartans to a 17-12\u00a0before a pair of Hurricane errors\u00a0extended MSU’s lead to six at 19-13. A successful Miami challenge got the Hurricanes within two at 21-19, but kills from Staniszewska and Ogden followed by a Sarah Vellucci<\/a> ace helped MSU to a 3-0 to reach set point at 24-19. Staniszewska put down her eighth kill of the set and 20th\u00a0of the night to help the Spartans tie the match and take the fourth set, 25-19.\u00a0<\/p>\n