As a tough week for the MSU women’s basketball team comes to an end, the team looks forward to getting some continuity as they head into the first game of the season against UT-Arlington at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Breslin Center.
Growing up in Michigan, the MSU-U-M rivalry simply is a part of life. It’s the line dividing households, cities and the entire Mitten state. It’s the source of those two color combinations that residents display with pride on their clothing, bumper stickers and flags. It’s the matchups that bring out the best and the worst in people, and most of all, it’s not just a game.
Last weekend, the MSU volleyball team shocked the crowd at Jenison Field House when it toppled No. 4 Nebraska in a five-set thriller. This weekend, the Spartans (19-7 overall, 7-7 Big Ten) look to repeat that episode, as they have the chance to knock off No. 10 Minnesota (20-5, 11-3) to start their Big Ten doubleheader.
Keith Appling is in rare company. Being a point guard in the MSU basketball program, the names of his predecessors read like a Mount Rushmore of achievement, forever carved into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
It was an instantly telling indictment. After leading the entire afternoon against Iowa on Oct. 13, the MSU football team (5-5 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) had lost the lead, was headed to overtime and had now lost the coin toss. With all of the momentum favoring the Hawkeyes, MSU head coach Mark Dantonio made what would normally be a surprising decision. He elected to play the overtime period in the end zone away from the student section because the Spartans needed as much support as possible and looking at a section about a quarter full didn’t inspire intimidation.
Filled with nerves and sitting in a seat unfamiliar to him, Michael Ferrantino sat ready to begin his first press conference as an MSU hockey (3-4-1 overall, 2-2-0 CCHA) player.
As the season gets under way, the MSU wrestling team aims to find an identity with a young roster as it hosts the Michigan State Open this Sunday at Jenison Field House.
In its first Big Ten Tournament matchup, MSU men’s soccer (9-9-1 overall, 3-3-0 Big Ten) earned an advance to the second round with a 2-1 win over Indiana.
Andrew Maxwell did something unusual before his weekly press conference. He woke up and made his way approximately two hours north to open the polls at 6:45 a.m. at Adams Elementary School, 1005 Adams Drive, in Midland, Mich.
Darqueze Dennard played the game of his life Saturday. The junior cornerback finished with two interceptions, four tackles, one called-back touchdown and one controversial pass interference penalty.
Growing up in Metro Detroit, Brent Darnell spent his winters with his backyard turned into an ice sheet. Like many young hockey players, the sophomore forward said he would wait for the pond to finally freeze so he could lace up his skates and head outside for the rare outdoor hockey play.
When MSU women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant cast her vote on Tuesday morning, she encountered a broken ballot machine — a good representation of the week the Spartans had.
For MSU volleyball’s assistant coach Russ Carney, a day’s work might seem like something it would take an army of people to accomplish. But after 10-12 hours a day filled with coaching and tracking the team’s academics, housing situations and even parking on game days, Carney still can’t get enough of his job.
The last time Jay Chapman took the soccer field against Indiana, he walked away with his first collegiate hat trick and a 3-1 win for MSU men’s soccer (8-9-1 overall, 3-3-0 Big Ten). Chapman looks to have similar success as the Spartans open up the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday in Evanston, Ill., against the No. 22 Hoosiers at 1 p.m., Central time.
There are times when Tom Izzo wonders what MSU athletics director Mark Hollis has gotten him into. Traveling more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to open the No. 14 MSU men’s basketball season in Germany was one of those times.
For the past two years, sophomore center Madison Williams has been the biggest cheerleader for the MSU women’s basketball team during the game against Grand Valley State on Sunday afternoon, she was back at it again.
For the MSU volleyball team, the unsettling feeling in the stomach after a hard loss was starting to be a routine.
As it is, Branden Dawson has plenty of challenges heading into his second year with the MSU men’s basketball team. Coming off a major tear of his left anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in March, along with the continued process of maturing his game to become one of the leaders for head coach Tom Izzo’s squad, the sophomore has plenty on his mind moving into the team’s first regular-season game against Connecticut.
It was an offensive explosion for the MSU women’s basketball team as it trounced Grand Valley State 83-36 in its final exhibition game of the season.
As soon as she heard the question, asking to sum up a week that saw two of her top players lost for the season with major injuries, Suzy Merchant sighed, closed her eyes and shook her head. “It was a rough week. It was probably the roughest week I’ve had in a long time,” Merchant said.