The Spartans will be looking to bounce back from their first loss of the season against No. 22 Creighton University during the Cancun Challenge. The Spartans went 1-1 in the two-game tournament, besting James Madison University 95-69—marking the fourth game in a row the Spartans have scored at least 90 points. 

Unfortunately, the Spartans failed to hit that high-point mark in their second game of the tournament against the Bluejays. In the 69-83 loss, the Spartans, for the first time all year, struggled to find the bottom of the basket late in the game resulting in their first loss of the year. 

According to head coach Robyn Fralick, the first road experience for the team was a “unique” one that the team and the coaches can learn from. One big takeaway from the first game—or rather from the last two games—is that graduate guard Julia Ayrault is going to be a big contributor to the team moving forward. 

Ayrault had a career night against JMU earning her third career double-double and the first of the season for MSU. She finished with career-highs in both points and rebounds after scoring 25 points and grabbing 15 boards. 

The grad student also made it onto the Cancun Challenge Riveria All-Tournament team because of her performance. Fralick credited Ayrault for her experience and reliability and for her dominant performance against JMU. 

"Her experience has been really helpful; we have moved her around in positions and I think she has done a great job there. She is pretty unique in the fact that she can score inside and out and that she is a good passer,” Fralick said before practice Tuesday. “She had a dominant game against James Madison, so we’re excited to see her grow."

The second takeaway, and maybe the most important one, is that this tournament and more specifically the first loss of the season, allowed MSU to get better prepared for the deep season that they are entering. 

MSU will be facing quite a few tough teams this season including women’s basketball powerhouses like No. 4 Iowa, No. 16 Ohio State and No. 17 Indiana, so a matchup against a team like Creighton, who finished in the elite eight just two years ago, provides the Spartans with a great learning experience. 

“The lesson that we can learn is that, against really good teams, you know, good teams take mistakes and capitalize on them, so we got to find a way to minimize those, but there was also big chunks of that game where I thought we played some really good basketball,” Fralick said. 

It is still very early to start to compare the Spartans to these other teams with high rankings within the Big Ten and Fralick doesn’t want the team to get caught up in comparisons. She wants the team to continue to get better and to continue focusing on themselves as they move forward.  

“I think that something we’re really focused on is we are focused on us. We are focused on us getting better and when you start worrying about other teams and what they’re doing, you can get lost in that. But right now, our hope is, this week, we’re better than we were last week.”