“You can take the records and toss them aside because it will be a fun, crazy game tomorrow night at DeMartin Stadium," head coach Damon Rensing said.

When Michigan’s first head coach, Steve Burns, stumbled through the yard of chainsaw artist Keith Bunker and discovered a two-foot tree stump carved into the shape of a bear in 2000, with one maize and blue eye and one green and white eye, he instantly called former MSU head coach Joe Baum. They both mounted the cost and decided the bear would become a trophy their teams would compete for whenever the rivals met on the soccer field, and something that Burns hoped would “take a life of its own.”

Two decades later, the spirit of this rivalry has only become fiercer. MSU leads the series 16-12-5, winning its last matchup 2-1 in 2025. This team has built its success around a veteran group that has helped set the standard both on and off the field. Senior forward Richie Ludwig is No. 2 in the Big Ten in assists, and senior midfielder Miles Merritt was recently picked for the Hermann Trophy Midseason Watch List. 

“Most coaches will tell you that you don’t want to have a coach-led team. You want a player-led team. And our captains, they’ve done a great job of pushing the intensity of training. When I have players like that, it makes my job a lot easier because the younger guys watch and learn from the older ones.”

MSU is ranked third in the Big Ten as the title race heats up, and while being a solitary game for a trophy, it’s also essential for the Spartans as part of the bigger picture of a Big Ten championship. Michigan has scored 11 goals this season, with 9 coming from restarts. Rensing said the Spartans need to be alert defensively “not just on the first phase of the restarts, but the second, the rebounds and counter-attacks especially.”