University of Minnesota Athletics
Volleyball Travels to Michigan State and Michigan
11/20/2003 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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Minnesota heads to Michigan State on Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. and to Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 6 p.m. The two matches will be Minnesota's final two road matches for the 2003 Big Ten campaign. The Golden Gophers enter the week with a 4-4 road record in conference play. Minnesota is 12-4 in the Big Ten and 19-9 overall. Michigan State enters the week tied for fourth place in the conference at 10-6. The Spartans are 5-3 at home this season, all of which came in Big Ten play. The Wolverines are in sixth place at 9-7 in Big Ten play. Michigan is 8-5 at home this season and 4-4 in conference play. Michigan State and Michigan both went 1-1 last week, each defeating Ohio State and falling to Penn State. The Golden Gophers defeated Michigan in four games at home on Oct. 24 and won against Michigan State in four games at the Sports Pavilion on Oct. 25.
The Big Ten conference race will come down to the last two weeks of the season. Penn State comes into the final two weeks of the season in first place at 14-3 in Big Ten play. Minnesota and Illinois are currently tied for second place at 12-4. This weekend the Golden Gophers will be at Michigan and Michigan State. Penn State will host Wisconsin, while Illinois makes its final Big Ten road trip to Indiana and Purdue. Since 1985, when the Big Ten went to a non-divisional format, the winner of the conference title has won by one match or tied for first place on seven occasions. The last time this happened was in 2000 when Wisconsin won by one match over Minnesota. In 1992, 1996 and 1997 there was a tie for first place. The winner of the Big Ten will get the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Should there be a tied the first two tiebreakers would be head to head results between the tied teams and then percentage of games won or lose between the tied teams.
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