ICE HOCKEY
Ex-Spartan: Icers have 'great shot'
The State News recently caught up with former MSU All-American and current Colorado Avalanche defenseman John-Michael Liles.
SPORTS
New baseball fan searching MLB to find team to cheer for
I've got a terrible secret. I've never had a favorite team. With the exception of rooting on the Spartans (which comes by default), I have no partisan in the world of sports. This was never a problem in football and basketball.
ICE HOCKEY
Hockey 101: Terms and phrases commonly used in the game
Not a big hockey fan, but want to root on the Spartans in their improbable march to a national championship?
ICE HOCKEY
Frozen Four flashback
Prior to this season, the Spartans last saw themselves in the Frozen Four in 2001. Anchored by the goaltending of All-American goaltender Ryan Miller, the Spartans earned a No.
ICE HOCKEY
Third line peaks as 'Frozen' looms
Maybe you haven't heard of freshman forward Jay Sprague or sophomore forward Matt Schepke, and you wouldn't be in the minority if you hadn't.
SPORTS
WWE weekend one for the memory bank
The annual World Wrestling Entertainment extravaganza rolled into Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, capping off nearly a week's worth of events in the Detroit area. My weekend started Friday, when my friend and I went to Ford Field to check out WrestleMania Fan Axxess.
ICE HOCKEY
Front and Center
The State News recently caught up with sophomore defenseman Brandon Gentile. Gentile and the Spartans leave today for the Frozen Four in St.
BASEBALL
MSU's Dwan scores pitching accolade
Senior John Dwan was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Monday for his near-perfect performance in Sunday's win against Indiana. Dwan threw seven scoreless innings in MSU's 6-1 win, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out three.
SPORTS
Spartans stumble on weekend
Though the MSU women's tennis team fell to No. 33 Indiana, 5-2, on Sunday, head coach Erica Perkins was pleased with the energy her team brought to the court. "No one gave up," Perkins said.
SPORTS
MSU finishes 7th; Coleman honored
The No. 19 MSU gymnastics team finished the Big Ten Championships over the weekend with a score of 192.650, good for seventh place in the competition. Rival Michigan took first place and Penn State and Illinois finished second and third, respectively. Despite the overall team performance, senior Kristen Coleman was named the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, the first Spartan to win the award since 1989. "I was really excited to get the award," Coleman said in a written statement.
FOOTBALL
With knee in brace, Ringer ready for junior campaign
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
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.
FOOTBALL
Coaches want defensive line to be more mobile as season approaches
There's a belief in college football that while some conferences feature a fast and attacking style of play, the Big Ten is known as a slower, more physical conference.
ICE HOCKEY
Underdog achievement
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
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
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.
SPORTS
Men's tennis swept over weekend play
The MSU men's tennis team finished a weekend of play with a 7-0 loss to No. 3 Ohio State on Sunday.
SOFTBALL
Softball opens Big Ten regular season
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.
SPORTS
Rinks brings focus, talent to Spartans tennis team
Whenever junior Nick Rinks is on the tennis court, he's focused and concentrated. His mind is one step ahead of the game, always thinking about different strategies and ways to beat his opponent.
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.