In her debut college game, Tori Jankoska put up 27 points, had 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, leading the Spartans to a 100-52 victory over Ferris State University. Women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant was pleased with Jankoska’s performance.
The earliest memory of the MSU-Michigan rivalry for linebacker Max Bullough and guard Blake Treadwell is a shared one. The two were spectators at Spartan Stadium on Nov.
Good defense and even better shooting led the No. 18 MSU women’s basketball game to a 100-52 win against Ferris State on Wednesday night at Breslin Center in the first of the team’s two preseason games.
Tuesday was a night of firsts for Gavin Schilling. In the MSU men’s basketball team’s season opening 101-52 exhibition win against Grand Valley on Tuesday night, the highly touted freshman forward made his first appearance in green and white. “I had the mindset coming in that I can’t be too nervous, and I expected good things,” Schilling said. “Nothing new, nothing surprising. I played good and brought a lot of good things to the team tonight.”
It’s the start of a new season, and the No. 18 women’s basketball team will kick off the preseason Wednesday as the Spartans look to improve on last year’s 25-9 record. MSU will face Ferris State at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Breslin Center for the first preseason game. The Spartans finished last season with their third-best record in school history and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, before being knocked out in the second round by Maryland, 74-49.
The second half of the volleyball season is approaching, and the No. 14 Spartans will hope to begin the second half how they began the first one — with wins over Penn State and Ohio State. The first half upsets over then-No. 1 Penn State and then-No. 13 Ohio State were the first of a strong Big Ten start for volleyball. However, MSU (17-5 overall, 6-4 Big Ten) finished the first half with a four-game losing streak after winning the first 10.
For nearly two decades, head coach Mark Dantonio has been surrounded by the Michigan rivalry — and he rarely backs down from the opportunity to talk about it. Whether it’s during his time at Ohio State, his coordinator days under head coach Nick Saban at MSU or his more than seven years as the head coach of the Spartans, Dantonio acknowledges the rivalry with the Wolverines is a part of who he, and by extension, his family have become.
They ran in transition. They showed off improved jumpers and mechanics. They eventually settled into the suffocating defense MSU has become known for under head coach Tom Izzo in their first public performance of the highly-anticipated 2013-14 season.
Basketball season is upon us. After the first half of the first exhibition game, the No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team leads Grand Valley State, 47-24.
It’s only a preseason game, but the No. 2-ranked men’s basketball team will kick off its highly anticipated season at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Breslin Center against Grand Valley State. The Spartans only have three games, including preseason, before they travel to Chicago on Nov. 12 to partake in the Champions Classic against the nation’s No. 1 team, Kentucky.
When Alvin Ellis III was sitting down on Breslin Center’s floor during last week’s media day, with more than 14,000 empty seats above him, his mind went back to Midnight Madness. Before his name was the first one called to introduce the team, Ellis nervously waited walking down the stairs with Future’s “Chosen One” ?blaring from the speakers. But once he emerged, Ellis got a ?feeling for what he will be in for when thousands of seats are filled with a sea of green and white on gameday.
With a second-straight Big Ten loss to No. 13 Northwestern on Saturday, the window for earning a share of the Big Ten regular season championship closed for the field hockey team (8-9 overall, 3-2 Big Ten). The somewhat unlikely 3-0 start to conference play won’t amount to Big Ten honors. But with one Big Ten game left, the regular season is approaching its end.
CHAMPAIGN, ILL. — Standing at the podium in a dank, hole-in-the-wall press room, complete with dingy ceiling tiles, florescent lights and a drooping Big Ten Network backdrop and buried in the depths of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium, head coach Mark Dantonio knew what his team had done.
An own goal in the first half sunk the No. 17 MSU men’s soccer team as they fell to Wisconsin 1-0 in Madison, Wisc., Sunday afternoon. The Spartans (8-3-3 overall, 1-2-1 Big Ten) officially were eliminated from contention for the Big Ten regular season title after Penn State beat Northwestern in double overtime earlier that day.
In the past couple weeks, a storybook season for the volleyball team steadily declined into anything but. After being ranked No. 5, winning six-straight matches at the start of Big Ten play and posting the best start to the season since 1996, the Spartans (17-5 overall, 6-4 Big Ten) lost the fire that enabled them to topple some of the top teams in the nation.
For the second-consecutive season, the MSU women’s soccer team will not make a trip to the Big Ten Tournament. After a 2-1 victory at Northwestern on Friday to stay in the hunt for a tournament berth, the Spartans (9-7-2 overall, 3-7-0 Big Ten) couldn’t find a way to win against Illinois (9-7-2, 4-5-1), losing 2-0 Sunday afternoon.
One win against a top-15 opponent, and two players scoring their first collegiate goal. Overall, it was a good weekend for the MSU hockey team (1-3 overall). MSU lost to preseason No. 1, and currently No. 18-ranked UMass-Lowell Friday night before scoring three goals in the third period to upset No. 13 Boston University on Saturday.
Three goals in the third period lifted the MSU hockey team to a 3-1 upset of No. 14 Boston University Saturday night. Goals from junior forward Bent Darnell and freshman forward Joe Cox were the difference as the Spartans (1-3 overall) won their first game of the season.
After a hot start to the season, the volleyball team is reeling. With a loss to Indiana (9-12 overall, 1-9 Big Ten) in five sets (17-25, 25-18, 20-25, 25-21, 12-15) on Saturday night, the volleyball team (17-5, 6-4) has now lost four straight Big Ten matches after a 6-0 start to conference play.
CHAMPAIGN, ILL. – Connor Cook’s performance in Saturday’s 42-3 win at Illinois was something straight out of a movie. Not in the traditional hero-versus-villain sense, although it wouldn’t surprise me if he was hiding a cape beneath that white MSU jersey with the record-setting day he had throwing the ball.