Walking by a Ping-Pong table, gaming consoles and shelves of shining trophies filled with Spartans history, Sam Puryear’s office sits with the door wide open. Upon accepting the head coaching job at MSU in August, Puryear left Stanford, a Pac-10 team that just won the national championship.
When the MSU baseball team and Michigan meet for four games this weekend, they’ll travel a short distance to each other’s home fields, but MSU coach David Grewe won’t refer to the cross-state showdown as a “rivalry.”
The MSU softball team will try to bounce back from a lackluster weekend to battle Purdue in a two-game weekend series. But it won’t be easy, especially for a team that’s slumped as of late, MSU head coach Jacquie Joseph said.
If one team heavily beats up on the other during Saturday’s intrasquad spring game, MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio won’t be pleased.
A 2 percent increase each and every spring camp practice — that’s the goal. And for certain members of MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio’s squad, there’s more than just getting stronger and developing good habits — it’s about transitioning into a brand-new position in order to help the team.
For the second straight season, sophomore Rochelle Robinson will represent MSU and compete on the national stage in the NCAA Championships. Last year, Robinson placed 22nd in the all-around with a score of 38.400.
Adding a fourth win to his list for the season, senior golfer Ryan Brehm was named Big Ten Men’s Golfer of the Week.
Junior forward Justin Abdelkader and freshman defenseman Jeff Petry were the big winners at the MSU hockey team’s banquet Tuesday, as both took home two awards.
Mere hours after the MSU hockey team’s season-ending loss to Notre Dame in the West Regional final, senior captain Bryan Lerg got a call from his family adviser. He had been offered a contract by the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
It’s not the NFL, but that didn’t stop MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio from conducting a little draft of his own. Dantonio acted as commissioner Monday afternoon as the team’s seniors split up and drafted the rest of the Spartans’ roster to either the Green or White team in preparation for Saturday’s spring game at 1:30 p.m. at Spartan Stadium.
The Iowa Hawkeyes squashed the MSU softball team’s six-game winning streak during the weekend, and it only went downhill from there for the Spartans. MSU posted a 1-3 record on the weekend, losing two games to Iowa and splitting a doubleheader with Illinois — which included a mercy win over the Fighting Illini with an 11-5 victory in five innings.
Freshman standout Aimee Neff has proven to be a vital piece of the MSU women’s golf team. Coming out and sending a message from her opening tee shot to the clubhouse, Neff fired a 69 in her first round as a Spartan on Sept. 8, 2007 at the Mary Fossum Invitational and has used that as motivation throughout the season.
The MSU women’s basketball team handed out its annual awards Sunday night. Junior center Allyssa DeHaan and sophomore forward Kalisha Keane were named co-Players of the Year. DeHaan had 150 blocks on the season, breaking her own Big Ten record of 145 set last season.
With more than 600 wins, three self-authored books and almost 20 years of coaching, MSU head coach Jacquie Joseph still gets as giddy about game day as when she was playing softball at Central Michigan.
MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio conducted a draft today in preparation for Saturday’s Green-White intrasquad game, which will be played at 1:30 p.m. at Spartan Stadium. Two teams, one green and one white, will battle it out in an exhibition-style game for a steak dinner, as opposed to the hated hotdogs and beans meal.
With steady rain and some lightning delays, the weather may have been lackluster at the Spartan Invitational on Saturday, but the MSU track and field team came out in full force, sweeping the event with first place finishes in 22 events.
In a game featuring two dominant pitching performances, it was an awkward ending to Sunday afternoon’s doubleheader between MSU (13-16 overall, 4-7 Big Ten) and Ohio State (18-11, 7-4).
There hadn’t been an offensive explosion all Saturday morning. The MSU defense crushed every running back and swatted swarms of passes thrown into the secondary during a team scrimmage.
Despite a trip plagued by delayed flights and a thunderstorm, the MSU gymnastics team placed third at the 2008 NCAA West Regional on Saturday in Corvalis, Ore.
It all came down to the No. 3 singles match for the MSU women’s tennis team. With the match tied at three points, freshman Manon Noe and Penn State’s Lauren Holzberg had to carry their teams on their backs in hopes of a victory.