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Sports

SPORTS

Womens hoops holds tourney

The MSU women’s basketball team will host the Spartan Chevrolet Classic for the 14th time on Friday and Saturday at Breslin Center. The tournament field includes Buffalo, Liberty, UCLA and MSU. Boston College won the tournament last year, downing MSU 63-61 in the championship game. Before last season’s championship game loss, the Spartans had won the tournament four consecutive years. MSU has advanced to the title game 12 of 13 years, its only first-round defeat coming in 1989 to the eventual champion, Kentucky. The first game sets Liberty against UCLA at 6 p.m.

BASKETBALL

Exhibition set for mens b-ball

The No. 15 MSU men’s basketball team has started 2-0 and still has one more exhibition game to tighten things up before the regular season continues. The Spartans play their second exhibition game of the year at 2 p.m.

SPORTS

Mens swimming team slips by Toledo while women dominate Rockets 192-108

Not only did the men and women’s swimming teams defeat another Mid-American Conference team Tuesday against Toledo, but the women’s 200-medley relay broke the pool record with a time of 1:48.55. Going into Toledo, the women’s team had a three-meet winning streak and the team continued its dominance by winning 13 events to defeat the Rockets 192-108. The record setting 200-medley relay team, consisting of junior Kathryn Duncombe, freshman Jessica Henning, junior Heather Wellings and freshman Alicia Copestick, broke the old pool record by .67 seconds. Copestick helped the women’s team in other events as well, swimming on the 400-yard freestyle relay team that won, 3:35.11.

ICE HOCKEY

Defensemen burying pucks with new offense

Within MSU’s new offensive scheme, the Spartan forwards are darting all over the ice and generating plenty of goals for head coach Ron Mason.But fourth-ranked MSU’s offensive glory doesn’t start and end with centers and wings.

SOCCER

Mens team awaits news on NCAA, women reflect on season success

Any hopes the MSU women’s soccer team had of continuing its season were lost Monday when the NCAA announced the 64 teams that will make up the tournament bracket.But the men’s soccer team still has four days to wait and hope that its season had that little extra spark that would push it into the 48-team bracket.The men haven’t been in the tournament since 1969, though in 1967 and 1968 the team was NCAA co-champions.The goalkeeper for the co-champion teams, MSU’S current head coach Joe Baum, said he believes this team could hold its own against the teams he played on.“I think if you look at our team today, we don’t have any All-Americans, but we’re more solid throughout the lineup,” he said.

SPORTS

Formanczyk wins singles consolation title

Though MSU wasn’t one of the two teams battling for the championship, much of the attention was on Spartan freshman Andrew Formanczyk who took home the Big Ten singles consolation title. Formanczyk won three matches Sunday, and cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Ohio State’s Vince Ng in the semifinals, and a 6-1, 6-3 win over Northwestern’s Jamie Sahara in the finals.

BASKETBALL

Three basketball recruits warming up pens to sign letters today

At 11 a.m. today Rochester forward Paul Davis, Detroit Crockett guard Maurice Ager and Arlington (Indianapolis) forward Delco Rowley will sign letters of intent to play for MSU men’s head basketball coach Tom Izzo in 2002.Recruiting analyst Dave Telep of bluechiphoops.com said Izzo’s new gang of recruits rests in line with some of college basketball’s more storied programs.

SPORTS

Defense stellar in tournament

After letting in the game-winning goal from Michigan in overtime of the second round of the NCAA Tournament, MSU field hockey team’s defense may have expected criticism.But the team would have only needed to point to the tournament statistics and scores to respond to the skeptics.Up to that season-ending goal, the defense had held some elite scorers to disappointing numbers in the tournament.In the first round, the Spartan defense held Kent State to two shots in the game, shutting down their forward Arlette van Cleeff, who scored 21 goals in the regular season.Sophomore midfielder Alexandra Kyser defended van Cleeff for most of the game, and MSU head coach Michele Madison said shutting down the nation’s No.

BASKETBALL

Spartans grab win in season opener, 80-70

Only three teams in the country were undefeated against Tom Izzo and the MSU men’s basketball team before Monday night - Duke, Arizona and Detroit-Mercy. Now, only two are. The Spartans (1-0) beat the Titans - a team made up of 13 Michigan natives, including eight Detroiters - 80-70 in the first round of the Preseason NIT at Breslin Center. The game opened both teams’ regular season and kept MSU’s home-winning streak intact at 45 games. But the Spartans, who haven’t beat the home-grown Titans in its last three tries, had a tough time reversing that streak Monday. “I was pleased with the win; I wasn’t always pleased with how we got it,” Izzo said.

BASKETBALL

Freshmen step up play in win over Detroit

After a miss midway through the second half, drawing shouts of “air ball” from the crowd, Detroit-Mercy guard Greg Grays shook his head Monday night at Breslin Center. Grays, a Southfield native, scored 24 points to lead the Titans on Monday night, but the rebuilding MSU men’s basketball team gave him one more reason to shake his head by the end of the night. With superior rebounding, MSU handed Grays’ team an 80-70 loss, marking the first time in four games his Titans would fall to the Spartans. MSU took the lead early going up 7-2 a minute and a half into the game. “Our plan was to just get the ball and just keep going, keep playing, it was no surprise,” junior forward Al Anagonye said.