Last year, No. 16 MSU field hockey played 24 games as they advanced through the Big Ten Tournament and into the Elite Eight. Of those 24 games, five of them went to overtime. This year, MSU has played the same amount of overtime in just seven games.
It took only about three minutes into Saturday’s matchup between No. 9 MSU and Eastern Michigan for the floodgates to open. And once they opened, there was no way to stop the rush. MSU (2-1 overall)cm let off some built-up anger to rout EMU, 73-14, on Saturday at Spartan Stadium. MSU reeled off 56 unanswered points before EMU (1-3 overall) recorded anything, coasting to an easy win over the Mid-American Conference foe.
Every sport seemingly has an as-old-as-time set of values and rules that make up “the right way” and “the wrong way” to play the game.
After a loss to Rutgers on Friday night, MSU bounced back on Sunday and wrapped up its east coast road trip with a double-overtime tie against new conference foe Maryland, 0-0. The Spartans (6-3-1 overall, 0-3-1 Big Ten) played yet another close game, this time escaping the weekend with a much needed point in the conference standings.
No. 25 MSU (7-4 overall) won two of three games over the weekend at Jenison Field House as part of the 2014 Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational. The tournament got off to a rough start for the Spartans, who lost to LIU-Brooklyn (9-4 overall) 3-2 (25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 26-24, 13-15) on Friday afternoon.
Over the weekend, the men’s soccer team (4-1-1 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) played Maryland in what was their first Big Ten game of the season on Sept. 19, winning 1-0.
After a 73-14 win against Eastern Michigan, MSU football has moved up to No. 9 in the AP Top 25 Poll.
No. 25 MSU (7-4 overall) dominated UW-Milwaukee (5-8 overall), winning in three straight sets for the second night in a row (25-19, 25-8, 25-16) at Jenison Field House on Saturday night. “The thing that was so cool about (tonight) is that we were discipline two nights in a row,” senior libero Kori Moster said. “It was a huge step in the right direction.”
It was MSU early and MSU often as the No. 11 Spartans (2-1 overall) rolled over the Eastern Michigan Eagles (1-3 overall) 73-14.The 73 points put up by the Spartans surpassed the previous high in the Dantonio era of 55 against UAB in 2007, Indiana in 2011 and Youngstown State in 2013.
Two weeks ago in Eugene, Ore., the ‘Spartan Dawgs’ looked more like the ‘Spartan Pups.’No.
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.