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Sports

FOOTBALL

With knee in brace, Ringer ready for junior campaign

Matt Bishop
April 2, 2007

After sustaining a sprained right knee in MSU's fifth game of the season last year, Javon Ringer was supposed to miss the remainder of the year. Instead, he came back after missing four games and played the final three games of the season with a brace on the knee. Now that it's time for spring football, Ringer has healed, but the brace remains at the behest of the MSU staff. "We made a deal," Ringer said last Tuesday after spring practice.

BASEBALL

Baseball wins 3-of-4 against Indiana

Tom Keller
April 2, 2007

Head coach David Grewe and the MSU baseball team took three of four games from Indiana and outscored the Hoosiers, 25-11, in a Big Ten-opening road trip this weekend. The Spartans (11-9 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) dropped only the opener, in which they outhit the Hoosiers, 15-5, but managed only one run in a 2-1 defeat.

ICE HOCKEY

Underdog achievement

Eric Fish  and  Zack Colman
April 2, 2007

It was supposed to be last year's MSU hockey team that had all the glory, not this year's squad. After losing a large portion of the team's offense, as well as several steady, reliable defensemen, hardly anybody would have expected the 2006-07 Spartans to surpass last year's team. But it happened. Last season After starting out the 2005-06 season around the .500 mark and battling through several key injuries, the Spartans were looking for some kind of turnaround. MSU got its spark when then-freshman goaltender Jeff Lerg took over in net and led the Spartans on a 17-4-3 second-half surge. "Last year was a really good team, I think from Christmas on," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. Behind Lerg's goaltending and a stingy defense, the Spartans captured the 2006 CCHA Tournament Championship and earned a No.

ICE HOCKEY

Comley named coach of year finalist

Eric Fish
April 2, 2007

MSU hockey head coach Rick Comley has been named one of 11 finalists for the Spencer Penrose Award, which is awarded to college hockey's top coach of the season by the American Hockey Coaches Association. Comley previously won the award in 1980 and in 1991, a year when Comley won his lone national championship.

SPORTS

Monday musings

Tom Keller
April 2, 2007

To stop teams from deliberately losing down the stretch, Houston Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy said last week he wants to open the NBA lottery to all teams. Van Gundy also suggested determining playoff seeding with scratch-and-win tickets. T-shirts that West Virginia players wore after winning the NIT championship last week accidentally misspelled the school's name "West Virgina." School officials said there's no excuse for such an obvous mstake. Actor Eddie Griffin crashed a $1.5 million Ferrari race car last week while filming the movie "Redline." It's the most damage Griffin has caused since the hit his career took from "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo." The owners of Ultimate Fighting Championship agreed last week to buy their biggest rival, Pride Fighting Championships, in hopes of staging "megafights" for pay-per-view.

SOFTBALL

Softball opens Big Ten regular season

Eric Fish
April 2, 2007

The MSU softball team opened its Big Ten regular season Sunday, looking to make amends for an embarrassing 11-1 home loss Wednesday against Bowling Green with a road doubleheader at Northwestern. The Spartans fell, 11-3, in the opener, and the finale was still underway at press.

FOOTBALL

Football facelift

When Mark Dantonio was introduced as MSU's head football coach Nov. 27, he used the word "toughness" five times in a matter of minutes when describing his philosophy.

ICE HOCKEY

Captain is MSU's top motivator

Zack Colman
March 30, 2007

Four years ago, senior captain Chris Lawrence had everything planned out. After his successful stint in juniors with the Pittsburgh Forge of the North American Hockey League, he was going to star at small Division I Mercyhurst College on scholarship in his home state of Pennsylvania, which made his parents happy that he'd be close to home. But then MSU changed everything when the university told Lawrence it wanted him to play hockey as a member of the Spartans. "I never even took a visit when I came here," Lawrence said.

SOFTBALL

WEB EXTRA: Softball team dismantled by Bowling Green, 11-1

Matt Bishop
March 29, 2007

MSU softball head coach Jacquie Joseph was hoping for a little more in her team's home opener Wednesday afternoon at Old College Field. Instead, what she got was a lackluster performance in an 11-1 six-inning loss to Bowling Green. The Spartans (18-14) struggled mightily with the top of Bowling Green's lineup, as the top five hitters went 13-for-17 with 10 RBIs and 11 runs scored. Joseph said she "could only hope" that it was just an off game. The Falcons (15-4) got off to a hot start, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning, while adding two more in the top of the second inning. But the big blow came in the top of the fourth, when Bowling Green's Allison Vallas drilled a three-run home run over the right field fence to give the Falcons a commanding 8-0 lead. MSU would get its lone run in the bottom of the inning off a RBI double from senior shortstop Meghan Darhower. Bowling Green tacked on three more runs for good measure in the top of the sixth inning, including a towering home run from Jeanine Baca.

SPORTS

Newcomers frame Spartans' lineup

Tom Keller
March 28, 2007

Make sure you buy a program the next time you go to an MSU baseball game. There are a lot of new faces to keep track of. With only three starting position players returning from last season, second-year head coach David Grewe is relying on a mix of freshmen and junior college transfers to help fill the roster.

ICE HOCKEY

Vukovic questionable to play in Frozen Four

Zack Colman
March 28, 2007

Although the Spartans won Saturday against Notre Dame in the NCAA Midwest Regional, they lost one of their top defenders. Junior defenseman Daniel Vukovic injured his knee early in the second period when he got tangled up behind the MSU net.

BASEBALL

Spartans baseball wins home opener

Tom Keller
March 26, 2007

The MSU baseball team won its home opener against Concordia on Saturday, but was denied the chance for a sweep when Sunday's game was called because of bad weather. Junior center fielder Dennis Jones went 2-for-4 in Saturday's win, including a two-run single in the seventh that put MSU up for good.

ICE HOCKEY

At the four front

Zack Colman
March 26, 2007

Grand Rapids — Once the Spartans regained their breath, celebration ensued. While watching failed attempts at scoring empty-net goals and Notre Dame controlling with a six-on-four power play in the final seconds, MSU fans and players could only hope to cling onto the 2-1 lead. When the puck trickled by a Notre Dame defenseman and into neutral territory, everybody knew it — with their 2-1 victory over the No.