Accomplishment. Pride. Happiness. Head coach Helen Knull said those three words are among thousands the team could use to describe winning the Big Ten Championship. But for three of the members of the field hockey team, perhaps a different word is more fitting: familiar.
Accomplishment. Pride. Happiness. Head coach Helen Knull said those three words are among thousands the team could use to describe winning the Big Ten Championship. But for three of the members of the field hockey team, perhaps a different word is more fitting: familiar.
As the men prepare to take on top-ranked Kentucky, Suzy Merchant and the No. 20 MSU women’s basketball team will face its own challenge Monday night. The Spartans will open their season against No. 7 Notre Dame at 7 p.m. in South Bend, Ind.
The fall of 2012 wasn’t kind to the MSU women’s soccer team. Three players suffered anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, tears across a stretch of games, an injury becoming increasingly common in women’s athletics. Then-sophomore Lisa Vogel and then-senior Kelsey Kassabf each tore an ACL. Kassab tore hers just one game prior to teammate Jessica White’s, while Vogel tore hers in a game against Iowa. In only her third soccer match in a Spartan uniform, White suffered her torn ACL, something female athletes face more than men.
Each and every day, Travis Trice is working to prove himself. On a team with four- and five-star talent, such as Gary Harris, Keith Appling, Adreian Payne and Branden Dawson, Trice can sometimes be lost in the shuffle.
In their first trip to Michigan Tech in almost 30 years, the MSU hockey team came away with a pair of losses this weekend. The Spartans (3-5 overall) fell 3-0 on Friday night, followed by a 3-2 overtime loss to the Huskies (3-6-1 overall, 1-1 WCHA) on Saturday.
Junior libero Kori Moster entered the Spartan record books last Friday. With 24 digs in the team’s 3-1 victory over Northwestern, Moster topped former MSU volleyball outside hitter Veronica Morales to become MSU’s all-time digs leader.
After its second bye week, the MSU football team moved up three spots to No. 14 in the latest Associated Press Top 25. The Spartans (8-1 overall, 5-0 Big Ten) have slowly ascended the polls by building a five-game winning streak since their Sept. 21 loss at Notre Dame.
As the MSU football team took a bye week to catch its breath, the rest of the Big Ten carried on this weekend, providing matchups that could be strong indicators of how the conference will wrap up. Multiple teams made moves to jockey for a spot in the Big Ten Football Championship Game while others looked to move into bowl eligibility or salvage their respective season with a win.
After talk of redshirting this season, freshman guard Alvin Ellis III will not redshirt his freshman year. The six-foot-four guard was a late signee to last season’s recruiting class after originally having committed to Minnesota. However, Ellis chose to look at other options after Tubby Smith was fired in March, and eventually signed on with MSU in late April.
For the first time since 2009, the MSU field hockey team is Big Ten Champions. Senior midfielder Adelle Lever scored the game-winner with less than eight minutes left in the game to clinch the Big Ten Championship for MSU over Iowa, 3-2.
The Big Bear is coming back to East Lansing. The No. 18 MSU men’s soccer team finished off the regular season in style with a 2-0 win against arch rival Michigan Saturday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium.
It’s obvious when you look at No. 1 Kentucky’s roster. Seven McDonald’s All-Americans, more than a handful of future NBA first-round picks, and arguably the greatest pool of freshman talent ever assembled at one school for a single college basketball season.
This time last year, Branden Dawson and Travis Trice were coming off of a summer where neither were able play and develop. Dawson, a junior forward, was recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament he sustained in the final regular season game against Ohio State during his freshman year.
The No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team pushed the pace — and cruised to a win. The Spartans (1-0 overall) won the first home opener at Breslin Center since 2010 by beating McNesse State, 98-56.
The No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team came out of the gates pushing the tempo and shooting a plethora of threes, and lead McNeese State, 52-25, in the first half of the college basketball season. Immediately after the tip, senior guard Keith Appling found sophomore guard Gary Harris for an open 3-pointer – his first of three in the half. The Spartans kept shooting from downtown and finished 8-16 from beyond the 3-point line. MSU also kept the pressure on the Cowboys offensively.
The MSU men’s hockey team is going to uncharted territory this weekend — at least for the last 29 years. The Spartans (3-3 overall) head to Houghton, Mich., for the first time since 1984 to take on Michigan Tech (1-6-1 overall, 1-1 WCHA) in a two-game series Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.
Junior forward Abby Barker has Indiana’s number. Barker posted her second three-goal game of the season, during her second game of the season against Indiana, on Thursday helping MSU shut out the Hoosiers 6-0 and advance to the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
Jairus Jones’ knee injury will keep him sidelined for the remaining of the season, head coach Mark Dantonio said before practice Thursday, implying the senior linebacker’s playing career at MSU likely has ended. When Jones went down in the Spartans’ game at Notre Dame on Sept. 21 with what was described as a medial collateral ligament, or MCL injury, he was originally given a six-week timetable to recover.
It all comes down to this. The last game of the regular season for the No. 18 MSU men’s soccer team (9-4-3 overall, 2-2-1 Big Ten) against Michigan (8-5-3 overall, 3-2 Big Ten), and senior day presents the Spartans with one emotional afternoon at DeMartin Stadium, in the Battle for The Big Bear Trophy.