Last season, the Spartans ended their run with a 1-0 loss to Michigan in the conference finale. The Spartans finished 24-35 overall.

This season, the team returns a number of players, including junior first baseman Natalie Furrow, junior third baseman Brittney Green, senior outfielder Tiffany Wallace and senior outfielder Sandy Lewis. All four earned Big Ten honors last season.

In addition to practice, the Spartans will play a few fall games, including the seventh annual Elk Rapids Tournament on Sept. 21-22 in Elk Rapids.

The Spartans will take on U-M, Central Michigan and Western Michigan over that weekend. MSU will also have home games on Oct. 6 against Detroit-Mercy and Wayne State.

Swim team adds coach

The MSU swim team will have a new face joining this season.

Kathleen Milloy, former assistant coach at Clemson, started her job as assistant coach to the Spartans on Aug. 30.

During her tenure at Clemson, Milloy coached six NCAA Championship qualifiers and three Atlantic Coast Conference Championship relay teams. Before joining Clemson, Milloy held coaching positions at Toledo, Tennessee and Brown.

She was instrumental in rebuilding the women’s swim program at Brown, bringing the team from last in the Ivy League to winning a league championship in 1996.

Milloy joins a relatively new coaching staff, with the exception of Matt Gianiodis, who is in his sixth season at MSU.

Gianiodis was promoted to associate swim coach in July. The rest of the coaches have had three years or less with the Spartans.