For someone who never in her career has had the pleasure of defeating Michigan before Jan. 30, nothing would be sweeter for senior forward Syreeta Bromfield than a season-sweep of the Wolverines during her last year as a Spartan.
Bromfield and the rest of the MSU squad (13-8 overall, 6-4 Big Ten) will get that chance when the two teams match up at 2:15 p.m. Sunday in Ann Arbor.
"They have a lot to prove and they're definitely going to be out to get us," Bromfield said. "It's still a matter of Michigan state pride, but we know we have to hold it down wherever we go."
Bromfield is right. The Wolverines (11-10, 2-8) certainly do have a lot to prove. After beginning the season with victories in eight of its first nine games, U-M has now dropped nine of its last 12 contests and is currently on a five-game slide.
The most recent loss was a 67-38 drubbing at the hands of Northwestern, where at one point in the first half the Wolverines remained scoreless for more than 14 minutes. U-M went into the break trailing the Wildcats 40-12 and never recovered.
"I think that whether we're at home or on the road we just seem to get pockets of minutes where maybe we aren't scoring," U-M head coach Sue Guevara said. "Then we tend to try and hurry and get those minutes back in a shorter amount of minutes. And I just think we have to maintain our cool and not panic when teams make a run on us."
U-M center Jennifer Smith seems to remain the most composed under pressure, leading the team in scoring with 12.7 points per game.
Before facing the Spartans, the Wolverines hosted Wisconsin (6-16, 4-7) on Thursday. Results from the game were not available at the time of press.
In contrast, MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said her squad has been learning and improving with each game. MSU was riding a season-best four-game win streak before falling 64-60 to Penn State at home Sunday.
Five Spartans average double-digits in scoring with Bromfield's 15.3 points leading the pack.
MSU's Lindsay Bowen follows close behind Bromfield, averaging 13.6 tallies a game. The freshman guard also plays a team-high 37 minutes per game. Fellow freshman forward Liz Shimek nets 11 points per game, while hauling down 9.8 boards per contest.
"They have a great deal of focus, vision, a hard work ethic
