One of the more meaningful games of the Spartan volleyball season begins tonight.

Michigan State (8-5, 1-1) attempts to improve their all-time, rivalry win record against the University of Michigan (5-7, 0-2) at Crisler Arena tonight. Spartan volleyball leads Michigan 50-38-1 all-time.

MSU volleyball is coming off a rough weekend as they dropped to No. 15 Purdue, three sets to one, in the beginning of Big Ten play. Michigan also dropped to Purdue last weekend, but in a sweep. The Boilermakers garnered their 800th program win defeating Michigan.

Regardless of the similar losses to Purdue, players on both Michigan and Michigan State had game and career-highs. It makes them the playmakers to watch for tonight’s game.

Against Purdue, the MSU offense was led by Allyssah Fitterer and Chloe Renig, who both had game-highs in kills (15, 13). Michigan charged forward against Purdue with freshmen Caroline Knop (16 kills and 18 digs) and Adeja Lambert (16 kills), which tallied career-highs.

Last year at Crisler Arena, Fitterer and Kori Moster led the Spartans to a three-set win. Sophomore Abby Cole led Michigan last year with 15 kills and junior Tiffany Morales dug 20 balls. For the Spartans, Fitterer had 10 kills while hitting .444. The road team has won the last four times played in the series.

The game against Michigan will be broadcast on Big Ten Network, and begins at 8 p.m. On Friday, Michigan visits East Lansing for the final game of the home-and-home series.

Alex Scharg is a multimedia journalist for Impact Sports.

Photo: Jennifer Swanchara/Impact Sports