Ice hockey
The seventh-ranked Spartan icers split their conference-opening series with Nebraska-Omaha this weekend, dropping a 2-1 decision on Friday night before bouncing back to win 4-1 on Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.
The Mavericks won Friday’s game with stellar play by freshman goalie Dan Ellis. Ellis made 34 saves on the night, only allowing a third-period goal to junior right winger Adam Hall.
Nebraska-Omaha (2-2-0) notched the first two goals of the game against MSU sophomore goalie Ryan Miller, the first coming a mere 22 seconds into the game.
On Saturday night, MSU outshot the Mavericks 35-19, and finally was able to solve Ellis. Senior right winger Rustyn Dolyny opened the scoring in the first period and sophomore defenseman John-Michael Liles added another before Nebraska-Omaha got on the board.
Freshman center Jeremy Jackson gave MSU some breathing room in the third period with a goal to make it 3-1. Hall added an empty net goal to seal the win, marking his third goal of the year and third point of the game.
The icers (2-1-1) next play at Notre Dame (2-3-1) on Thursday and Friday in the only meetings between the squads this season.
Field hockey
The 19th-ranked field hockey team also split its weekend matchups, falling to Big Ten rival Ohio State on Friday before beating Miami, Ohio on Saturday.
MSU took the 16th-ranked Buckeyes to double overtime in Columbus before Marije van Nouhuys notched her second goal of the game, giving OSU a 3-2 victory.
The Spartans took a 2-1 lead on a goal by junior forward Bridget Cooper 33 seconds into the second half. Junior forward Maureen Halstead scored in the first half for MSU, but van Nouhuys scored the final two goals of the game, sealing the win for OSU.
The team redeemed itself and improved its record to 10-7 overall with a 3-2 victory over the RedHawks on Saturday.
Cooper scored her team-leading ninth goal to open the scoring and sophomore midfielder Cynthia Martin added another to give MSU a 2-0 lead. After a RedHawk goal, Halstead extended MSU’s lead back to two with her fourth tally of the season.
The squad’s next game will be 3 p.m. on Friday against Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Men’s tennis
The men’s tennis team hosted its only event of the fall season this weekend, competing against DePaul, Western Michigan, Bowling Green and Toledo in the 2000 Advantage Spartan Invitational.
Freshman Eric Simonton and sophomore Todd Townsend each finished the weekend undefeated in singles play. Simonton won all three of his singles matches and one doubles match while Townsend extended his singles record to 5-1 with his three wins. Townsend also notched two wins in doubles with sophomore Adam Hourani.
Another freshman, Chris Mitchell, also won two singles matches and a doubles match. Sophomore Jason Chen won one match at singles and two at doubles at the invitational.
Freshman Mike Jonckheere also earned a singles win for the Spartans.
The team will return to action on Friday at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Madison, Wis.
Women’s soccer
The MSU women’s soccer team lost to St. Mary’s College 2-1 Friday in Moraga, Calif. The double overtime game dropped the Spartans to 10-4-2 overall while they remain 5-3-1 in the Big Ten.
Freshman forward Tiffany Laskowski scored the first goal of the game marking her fifth of the season. Laskowski, who recorded four of MSU’s five shots, could not combat 17 St. Mary’s shots by herself.
Two of those 17 shots got past senior goalie Sara Kloosterman at the 83:58 mark and the 113:25 mark. Kloosterman stopped eight shots on the day.
