Today when the No. 3 MSU field hockey team boards the plane to Louisville, Ky., it will be landing in uncharted territory.
Not in the history of the program has any Spartan team ventured so deep into the postseason waters, but this year's squad is determined to return to East Lansing with nothing less than a national championship.
"Our goal for the season was to make the Final Four, and we did it," sophomore back Annebet Beerman said. "We can't go any farther than this weekend and we've got nothing to lose."
The road to the Final Four has been an eye-opening experience for the Spartans, marked by a 4-3 win over Harvard and a 2-1 heartstopper over No. 8 Northeastern that was decided with a round of penalty strokes after double overtime.
Head coach Michele Madison said the close decisions will only aid the team in better responding to the pressure situations it will face this weekend.
"Last weekend was for sure a character builder," she said. "They were able to win under pressure and pull it out and that's the key.
"The regulations, the weather, everything was a challenge and they just rose to the challenge and kept playing and giving more until they won it."
Last year was the Spartans' first nomination to the NCAA Tournament. MSU (23-2) advanced to the second round before being eliminated in a 2-1 overtime loss to intrastate rival and eventual tournament winner Michigan.
This year, although the defending national champion Wolverines were ousted in the first round, MSU will see some familiar faces. After battling with teams it hadn't faced before in the first and second rounds of the tourney, two of the Spartans' three potential opponents have appeared on MSU's schedule this year.
No. 1 Old Dominion (21-3) is the first squad, which squared off against the Spartans in their season opener Aug. 31. MSU fell to the nine-time national champion Monarchs 3-2 in overtime.
No. 6 Penn State (18-4) also joins the Spartans in the elite group, marking just the fifth time in the tournament's history that two of the final four teams are Big Ten members. MSU defeated the Nittany Lions in both matchups this season.
No. 2 Wake Forest (18-2) remains the only unknown, but the Spartans aren't completely in the dark - they downed the Demon Deacons last season, 2-0.
Madison said although it is nice to have faced teams earlier in the year, the tournament brings out the best in every team.
"It's a whole new ball game," Madison said. "It's not about who you beat and what the records show anymore; it's about who can put it together this weekend and put out the best performance and get the win."
MSU is coming out with the attitude that each game might be its last, and for its seniors - back Jenny Sanders, midfielder Cynthia Martin and forward Julia Adams - every game really might be the last.
"I don't know if it has to do with it being the last two games for me, but I think everybody's going to play as hard as they can no matter what," Adams said. "We've come so far, and we'd be ashamed not to play our best. But right now we're just concentrating all our efforts on Wake Forest, and we're trying not to get ahead of ourselves."
MSU faces Wake Forest in a 7:30 p.m. Friday match at Trager Stadium on the campus of Louisville, in Louisville, Ky. The winner will advance to the championship game at 2 p.m. Sunday, facing the winner of the Old Dominion-Penn State matchup.
