Friday nights can never compare to Saturday afternoons. With the late August sun beaming down and the smell of hot dogs drifting through the air, my first football game as a Spartan was everything my high school football experiences were not.
The MSU field hockey team extended its regular-season win streak to eight with a 2-0 shutout of Kent State on Saturday.A battle for the match's first strike saw both teams coming up empty-handed, and the first half ended in a 0-0 tie.
The No. 25 MSU volleyball team started its season by winning the Maryland Invitation over the weekend, highlighted by nine players achieving career milestones.Junior outside hitter Kim Schram had a career-high 32 kills in the team's five-game victory over Tennessee on Saturday.
MSU's newest Spartan was in Spartan Stadium on Saturday - but it wasn't to play football.The MSU men's basketball program received their first verbal commitment for the 2005 recruiting class on Saturday in Bay City Central junior Eric Devendorf.
They might have begun as a question mark, but by the time the game was over, they were the heroes.The MSU defensive line shut down Western Michigan's offensive star and abused its quarterback.
His leg might have been broken, but his love for the game was not.Tyrell Dortch, filled with energy and anticipation and nearly two years removed from the last time he saw game action on the Spartan Stadium grass, darted onto the field Saturday afternoon seemingly with new life.
Throwback jerseys are in, so the MSU football team decided to take the fad one step further - with a throwback name.In honor of the school's 1,000th football game, the Spartans will go incognito, removing the logos from their helmets and going by the name Aggies on the scoreboard, Sports Information Director John Lewandowski said.
A Saginaw County District Court jury found former MSU basketball star Jason Richardson guilty of misdemeanor domestic violence on Thursday.Richardson and his former girlfriend, Roshonda Jacqmain, were involved in a domestic dispute last April when Richardson arrived at Jacqmain's home to pick up the couple's daughter.
He was the quarterback and the conductor. After guiding MSU to an emotional win in his return to the Spartan offense, Smoker took his just reward, standing atop the band director's ladder and leading the remaining fans from the 27th consecutive sellout home game in a victorious rendition of the school's fight song. "It's the coolest thing I've ever done outside of Michigan a couple years ago," the senior signal caller said.
The MSU volleyball team is more than ready to open its season at the Maryland Invitational this weekend. This anticipation comes following practice after practice, with the Spartans doing nothing but scrimmaging each other. They're sick of it. "We're just excited to play someone different for a change," senior setter and co-captain Nikki Colson said.
Should he play or should he go? Senior quarterback Jeff Smoker will walk onto the field Saturday amid many questions - the first being, should he? His coaches think the signal caller, who was suspended last season after admitting to a substance abuse problem in October 2002, should be allowed to don a Spartan uniform again. "Jeff has done everything we've asked," offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin said.
Old College Field will be busy this weekend as both the men's and women's soccer teams host opponents on the banks of the Red Cedar for their first contests of the regular season. Last week, the teams played in exhibition games with the men's squad tying Rutgers 1-1 and defeating Kentucky 2-0 in the IPFW Soccer Showcase in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Former MSU basketball star Jason Richardson was in Saginaw County District Court on Thursday to testify that he had acted in self- defense in a domestic dispute last April, the Saginaw News reported Thursday. Richardson, now with the NBA's Golden State Warriors, was charged in April of domestic violence after former girlfriend Roshonda Jacqmain accused Richardson of shoving her into a wall and kicking her when he came to pick up the couple's daughter. Richardson testified that the two did argue when Richardson went to Jacqmain's Saginaw home on April 29 to visit his daughter but that when Jacqmain brought up her fist, Richardson grabbed her and shook her. After Richardson let her go, she fell to the floor, Richardson said.
MSU athletics has a tradition of keeping sports within the family - the football Ducketts, the hockey Millers and the basketball Vincents.
Being one of the nation's top squads isn't always easy - ask the MSU field hockey team. The Spartans practiced in one way or another through the entire offseason - weight training, conditioning and traveling abroad to do battle with the world's best opponents and participating in the Mercian Spring League. And now, with the start of the season mere days away, the team is getting stir-crazy. Fifth-year assistant coach Rolf van de Kerkhof said because of hard work in the offseason, the Spartans have been able to jump right into play-making, rather than wasting too much time with conditioning. "We had a good preseason, a lot of the hockey team came in fit so that was a plus," he said.
MSU will host the 2004 Big Ten Championship in men's tennis from April 29 through May 2. The announcement came Wednesday when the tennis team announced their 2003-04 schedule, which also includes hosting the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Midwest Regional Tournament in October. In last year's Big Ten Championship, MSU reached the semifinals but was knocked out by eventual NCAA champion Illinois. The team will kick off the season at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind., Oct.
The swagger is gone and the expectations went with it.So is his favorite target and his pristine image.As well as the complete coaching staff, his two top running backs and his whole comfort zone.The passing records seem a forgone conclusion, but for MSU quarterback Jeff Smoker, there is so much more to prove.What's real is the nervous twitch of his eye and a no-name receiving corps that could easily let him down.As Smoker addressed reporters for the second time since being reinstated to the football team, he tried to emphasize that he was concentrating only on this week's game.When the Spartans take the field against Western Michigan at 3:40 p.m.
Lend me your ears, baseball fans - your hometown team is about to make history.It's definitely not in the way most people would find anything to cheer about, but with the Tigers, I'm sure you've learned to take what you can get.Yes, I'm talking about the losingest season in modern baseball history.
After a productive summer, a preseason which saw competition at all six positions and the season opener on Friday, MSU volleyball head coach Chuck Erbe named his starters at a press conference Monday.Senior Nikki Colson will start over sophomore Mickey Davis at the setter position.
The Spartans remained undefeated through two preseason exhibition games with a 1-0-1 record at the 2003 IPFW Soccer Showcase.On Sunday, the MSU men's soccer team downed Kentucky 2-0.