No. 11 MSU (1-1 overall) looked impressive in the first half on Saturday, leading Eastern Michigan (1-2 overall) 49-0 after 30 minutes of play.
In their first Big Ten game of the season, the men's soccer team beat the Maryland Terrapins 1-0. The win moves MSU to 4-1-1 on the season and gives them a 1-0 record in conference play. The Spartans, under the lights, at Ludwig Field in front of thousands of Maryland fans got out to an early lead with a goal by junior midfielder Jason Stacy, with an assist coming off a head pass by senior forward Tim Kreutz around the 9 minutes into the first half.
MSU suffered another late defeat, this time at the hands of Big Ten newcomer Rutgers, 1-0.The Spartans (6-3 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) and Scarlet Knights were tied at zero after the first game’s 88 minutes, but Rutgers broke through with a goal in the 89th minute to finish off MSU.Rutgers junior forward Samantha Valliant took a free kick from 20 yards out on the left side and beat MSU redshirt senior goalkeeper
After a lackluster performance against LIU-Brooklyn in the day portion of the day-night doubleheader, No. 25 MSU (6-4 overall) swept Western Kentucky (11-3 overall), 3-0 (25-11, 25-21, 25-16) in the night cap. “We came out with the right type of intensity and focus we needed to play against Western Kentucky,” head coach Cathy George said. “They’re a very good team.”
No. 16 MSU field hockey (5-2 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) found itself in another overtime matchup on Friday, as they opened up the Big Ten schedule against Ohio State. With plenty of overtime experience under their belt, the Spartans were able to come out victorious by a score of 4-3. The seniors for MSU dominated the goal column in this one, with two goals from senior forward Allie Ahern and one each from senior midfielder Becky Stiles and senior forward Abby Barker.
No. 25 MSU (5-4 overall) suffered another close loss at home on Friday afternoon, losing 3-2 (25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 26-24, 13-15) against LIU-Brooklyn (8-3 overall).After surrendering the first three points of the first set, MSU used a 14-8 run to give them a three-point lead.
Standing at six-foot-four feet tall, it’s not easy to miss outside hitter Chloe Reinig. Height aside, the sophomore standout has been a linchpin for No. 25 MSU volleyball (5-3 overall).Reinig has made up for lost time after missing the non-conference portion of the 2013 season with mononucleosis. The outside hitter appeared in 25 matches last season.
Spartan Stadium’s student section is the place to be this year.Maxed out at 14,000 graduate and undergraduate students, this season has the highest single-season student section tickets total sold since 1988.In total, 61,931 season tickets have been sold – the second highest amount of season tickets sold at MSU of all-time, according to associate athletics director John Lewandowski.Last year, football season tickets sold out close to the beginning of the season in late August – this year, season tickets were gone the second week of August, according to MSU Associate Director for External Operations Paul Schager.“I couldn’t get tickets because they sold out so fast,” linguistics sophomore Jacob Graham said.
After two exhibition games and six non-conference games, MSU field hockey (4-2 overall) will kick off Big Ten play this weekend in Columbus as they take on Ohio State (2-3 overall) at 3 p.m.
No. 25 MSU volleyball (5-3 overall) will host the 2014 Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational this weekend at Jenison Field House. The Spartans welcome LIU Brooklyn (7-3 overall), Western Kentucky (10-2 overall) and UW-Milwaukee (4-6 overall) to East Lansing for a two-day, six-game tournament.
This upcoming Friday, the men’s soccer team will take on the Maryland Terrapins in what will be MSU’s first Big Ten game of the season. “We have to refocus, work on some things this week, obviously there’s a huge one on Friday, the guys are already thinking about it and (there’s) a lot of work to do, a lot to work on,” senior defender Ryan Keener said after the game last Sunday.
MSU women’s soccer will visit Big Ten newcomers Rutgers and Maryland this weekend, but the Spartans are not exactly looking to give them a warm welcome to the conference.
Sept. 22, 2012 was a day that would be difficult to forget , even for the underachieving Spartans of 2012. Facing a team from the MAC that they were expected to beat by four or more touchdowns, MSU went into the locker room at halftime trailing Eastern Michigan 7-6.
Director of basketball operations Kevin Pauga tweeted earlier this week that Izzone ticket sale requests will begin at 9:20 p.m. on Sept. 20, in celebration of head basketball coach Tom Izzo’s 20th season.
Men’s soccer senior midfielder Fatai Alashe, born and raised in Northville, Mich., recalls learning the game of soccer as a blur. His father’s love for the game wore off on him as a boy, and he’s been playing ever since. “It’s all kind of a blur, it was mostly just my dad, my dad’s a big soccer fan..so I just learned it from him,” Alashe said. “I’ve been playing since I was a baby, probably three years old, and (my dad has) been teaching us stuff since then.”
Pound-green-pound has been the mentality head coach Mark Dantonio has built the program around since joining MSU’s sidelines in 2007. However, through the first two games, the normally reliable running game has been a cause for concern in East Lansing.No. 11 MSU (1-1 overall) is averaging 167 rushing yards per game, which puts them in bottom half of the country and eighth in the Big Ten. MSU was held to only 123 rushing yards in its last outing against No. 2 Oregon, creating a noticeable area for improvement this week against Eastern Michigan (1-2 overall).
Many MSU students might not know about the coach who will be on the opposite sideline of head coach Mark Dantonio, but Chris Creighton has been said to mirror Dantonio's off-the-field personality.Both coaches spoke at the Sound Mind Sound Body camp in Detroit, Dantonio said he was very impressed with Creighton."I was impressed with his delivery," Dantonio said.
Current MSU football players had the week off this past weekend, but a number of former Spartans carried on the program’s flag with impressive games in the NFL. Four former Spartan quarterbacks saw playing action in the NFL this past weekend, all of which leading their respective teams to victories.
Last Friday, MSU and then-No. 9 Wisconsin kicked their seasons off in a tough Big Ten opener. The Spartans and Badgers were certainly familiar with one another, but two individuals involved in the game knew each other like sisters.Courtney Clem, MSU’s redshirt senior goalkeeper, had the rare opportunity to see her sister, Caitlyn, on the opposite bench.
Early in the season, there seemed to be a couple of trends that were forming for No. 16 MSU field hockey. Among them, the team consistently found themselves in overtime finishes and always wound up splitting weekend series.This past weekend in Kent, Ohio, the Spartans were able to kick the one trend that means the most.