Michigan State women's basketball is quickly approaching the start of its 2023-2024 season, which is just 22 days away. With the season so close, the Spartans unveiled team captains on Tuesday morning.

MSU women's basketball head coach Robyn Fralick has announced the team voted guard/forward Julia Ayrault and guard Moira Joiner as its team captains for the upcoming campaign.

The two mark a return of captains for the MSU squad who have not had captains named since the 2019-2020 season. Redshirt senior forward Victoria Gaines and senior guard Taryn McCutcheon were named team captains that season, and helped lead the team to a 16-14 season overall and 9-9 mark in Big Ten play.

Ayrault is a graduate student and Michigan native, hailing from Grosse Pointe Woods. She redshirted due to a foot injury in the 2021-2022 season and has spent all five seasons of her college career in East Lansing.

Last season, Ayrault saw action in all 30 games for the Spartans, averaging 3.6 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. She has played in 77 games total at MSU in total, averaging 15.8 minutes per game over her career. During her sophomore season, Ayrault had career-highs in points per game (9.0), rebounds per game (4.9), assists per game (1.8), and field goal percentage (43.8%).

Joiner is another Michigan native who has spent all five seasons in East Lansing. Hailing from Saginaw originally, Joiner is a graduate student at Michigan State and has seen action in 95 games for the Spartans, earning starts in 54. She missed much of 2021-2022 with concussion symptoms, but she made up for the missed time with career-highs in almost every category last season.

Joiner averaged 10.1 points per game over 25.3 minutes in 2022-2023, grabbed 4.8 rebounds per game and dished 2.1 assists per game, along with 54 total steals on the season. Her shooting percentage (38.8% overall and 36.5% from deep) was only bested by her 2020-2021 campaign when she averaged 40.2% from the field and 39.2% from 3-point range.

Joiner also recently made the trip with junior guard DeeDee Hagemann and Fralick to Big Ten Women's Basketball Media Days last week in Minneapolis.

The Spartans will take to the floor of the Breslin Center on Thursday, Nov. 2 against Davenport for the lone exhibition game of the season before hosting Oakland on Nov. 8 to open the regular season.

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