Spartan Sports Roundup
4/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
April 1, 2009
Spartan Sports Roundup provides a brief overview of the Olympic sports teams in action. Read a recap of last week's action, look ahead to this week's action and find key notes on each team in this weekly recap.
 | Community Service |
This Week: Student athletes traveled to Northeastern Elementary School in Eaton Rapids to help promote exercise to children last week ... Student athletes will judge a Chili Cook-Off for the Sparrow Cancer Center, held at Sparrow Hospital's St. Lawrence Hospital on Wednesday ... Several student-athletes will attend a Jump Rope for Heart event to promote exercise and healthy living on Thursday.
| Baseball |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: The Spartans went 1-3 last week, defeating Western Michigan on Wednesday (March 25) before dropping three straight at Illinois last weekend.
This Week: The Spartans will play five games this week, highlighted by the opening of McLane Baseball Stadium on Friday (April 3) at 3:05 p.m., starting a three-game series against Northwestern. Prior to Friday's opening, MSU will play at Notre Dame at 6 p.m. on Tuesday (March 31) and will host Central Michigan on Wednesday (April 1) at Oldsmobile Park at 3:05 p.m.
Notes: Eli Boike and Chris Roberts continue to lead MSU in hitting this season with .349 and .333 batting averages, respectively ... Boike's five home runs and 49 total bases also lead MSU ... The Spartan pitching staff has picked off a conference-leading nine runners so far this season - two more than any other team ... Kyle Corcoran is the Big Ten leader with four runners picked off ... MSU has also thrown out a Big Ten best 17 runners, which is four more than second-place Minnesota ... Senior starter Nolan Moody threw his first-career complete game earlier this season in an 8-4 victory over Oakland ... Senior reliever Peter Wolff's three saves are tied for second-most in the Big Ten ... Through 24 games, five players have started every game: Boike (right field), Roberts (second and third base), Eric Roof (catcher and third base), Jonathan Roof (shortstop) and Brandon Eckerle (center field).
| Softball |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: Michigan State opened the season at home, topping Western Michigan, 5-3, on Tuesday, before sweeping Detroit in a doubleheader on Wednesday. MSU then traveled to Champaign, Ill., for a two-game series with the Illini. The Spartans fell, 13-3, on Saturday in five innings, with senior Kara Weigle (Naples, Fla.) hitting a three-run home run in the fifth inning, ending Illinois' shutout. Sunday's game between the two teams was cancelled due to inclement weather in the area.
This Week: The Spartans travel to Evanston, Ill., for a doubleheader with No. 10 Northwestern on Wednesday, April 1, beginning at 3 p.m.
Notes: MSU scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning against Western Michigan to pick up the win ... Senior Gina Mondo (Orange, Conn.) and sophomore Lindsey Hansen (Valparaiso, Fla.) both hit two-run home runs in the seventh inning with two outs to win the Spartans' 2009 home opener and the debut of the recently renovated playing surface ... Weigle notched the first home run in the new Old College Field, hitting a solo homer in the fourth inning against Western Michigan ... Hansen recorded a home run in both games against Detroit, and Weigle notched a homer in the first game, her second in as many games ... The Spartans combined for 21 hits through both games, with 12 coming in the nightcap ... Senior Megan Hair (Torrance, Calif.) started in the circle for the Spartans in game one, pitching six innings; she gave up just one run and struck out three for her fourth win of the season, while freshman Lauren Kramer (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) pitched all seven innings for MSU in the nightcap, allowing just two runs while striking out four batters ... Mondo leads the team in batting average (.418), runs (23) and hits (38) ... Hansen leads the team in triples (3), home runs (9), RBIs (21), total bases (65) and slugging percentage (.691) ... Weigle has a second-best 36 hits, along with a team-best 11 doubles and 10 sacrifice hits ... Hair leads the pitching staff with 36 strikeouts and has a team-best three saves ... MSU is 34-for-38 in stolen bases as Mondo leads the team with nine ... The Spartans have hit 31 home runs in 29 games, with Hansen notching a team-high nine, while Mondo has five and Kramer has hit four homers ... Mondo ranks fifth on MSU's all-time home runs list with 18 in her career; Weigle recently reached the list with 12 thus far in her career ... Hair recorded her 150th career strikeout on March 21 at Ohio State ... Sophomore Karen Fox (Flushing, Mich.) and freshman Ali Grant (Lutz, Fla.) lead the team in fielding percentage; both have not committed an error in the 25 games ... Three Spartans have started all 29 games: Weigle has started behind the plate, Hansen has played at shortstop and freshman Ali Grant splits time between third base and right field ... After posting wins in all three home games last week, the Spartans hold a perfect record at the recently renovated Old College Field.
| Outdoor Track & Field |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: MSU opened its outdoor slate at the USF Quad Meet, hosted by South Florida. The Spartan men finished second while the women finished third. Senior Kyle Strotbaum (Grand Rapids, Mich.) broke his own school record in the hammer throw, qualifying for NCAA regional competition with a toss of 56.94m (186-10). Senior Nicole Bush (Wyoming, Mich.) and sophomore Yury Ratomski (Novi, Mich.) also qualified for the regional championships in the 3,000m steeplechase and the 200m dash, respectively.
This Week: MSU will host its only home outdoor meet of the season, the Spartan Invitational, at the Ralph Young Track & Field Complex on Saturday; competition begins at 9 a.m.
Notes: Shane Knoll (Warren, Mich.) earned All-America honors, becoming the 48th Spartan to earn indoor All-America honors and is the first since Brad Gebauer was honored in 2006 ... Knoll was also honored as the USTFCCCA's Great Lakes Region Male Track Athlete of the Year, the first in program history to earn the award ... Freshmen Beth Rohl (New Buffalo, Mich.) and Becca Buchholtz (East Troy, Wis.) earned Big Ten titles in the weight throw and high jump, respectively ... Rohl and Buchholtz became the first Spartan freshmen to win individual Big Ten indoor titles in school history; the only other freshman to do win a Big Ten title was Michelle Brown as a member of the 4x400m relay in 1982 ... Rohl's toss is a new school record ... Both Rohl and Buchholtz were named to the All-Big Ten first team while Rohl was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year ... Sophomore Shane Wells (Romulus, Mich.) broke a school record in the 60m hurdles at the Big Ten Championships, finishing in 7.88 seconds, an NCAA provisional qualifying mark ... The men's 4x400m relay team, consisting of Jeremy Orr (Detroit, Mich.), Keith Hewlett (Detroit, Mich.), Yury Ratomski (Novi, Mich.) and Michael Smoot (Trenton, Mich.), broke the school record after clocking in at 3:09.59, defeating a team from Western Kentucky that had run 3:07.61 earlier this season by nearly two seconds ... The mark is an NCAA provisional qualifying time and ranks 15th in the nation ... Lisa Senakiewich (Davison, Mich.) set an NCAA provisional qualifying mark by shaving nearly six seconds off of her personal-best time in the mile after finishing the race in 4:40.91 ... Her time breaks a school-record that was set by Anne Pewe back in 1982 when she ran the mile in 4:41.50 ... Knoll set the school-record in the mile run at the Meyo and became only the second Spartan in program history to run a sub-four-minute mile as he won one of the most prestigious mile events in the nation by clocking in at 3:57.36 ... Knoll also broke the school-record in the 800m run at the Grand Valley Big Meet, clocking in at 1:48.97, also an NCAA provisional qualifying time ... Orr broke his own school record in the 400m dash at the Meyo, running an NCAA provisional qualifying time ... His time is currently the seventh-fastest in the nation; the win marked Orr's second 400m dash title of the season ... Junior Leah Elenbaas (Greenville, Mich.) also broke a school record, topping her own mark in the 1,000m run after clocking in at 2:50.32 to win the event ... Jay Gillespie (Allen Park, Mich.) notched a weight throw record at the Big Ten Championships with a toss of 19.40m (63-7 ¾), topping his previous school-record toss ... The Spartans saw three athletes earn weekly conference honors following the season-opening MSU Open ... Davis took home the school's first ever Big Ten Female Track Athlete of the Week honor after claiming the 60m dash title with a personal-best time of 7.63 seconds; she is also the first Spartan in school history to win a Big Ten weekly honor twice in the same season since the league started weekly honors back in 1990 ... Buchholtz was the Big Ten Female Field Athlete of the Week after winning the pentathlon in her first collegiate event while Gillespie took home Male Field Athlete of the Week after his then school-record heave of 18.40m (50-6 ¼) in the weight throw.
| Gymnastics |
Roster | Schedule
This Week: The 26th-ranked Spartans travel to Columbus, Ohio, for the NCAA Central Regional on Saturday, April 4 with competition beginning at 6 p.m. inside St. John Arena. MSU is making its 19th appearance at the NCAA Regionals and is seeded sixth in the region.
Notes: Three Spartans earned All-Big Ten honors at the annual awards banquet. Rochelle Robinson (Chesapeake, Va.) was a first-team selection, while Nicole Curler (Bay City, Mich.) and Kelsey Morley (Elkhart, Ind.) were named to the second team ... Robinson and Curler garner All-Big Ten honors for the third-straight year; it marks the second time that Robinson has been named to the first team, while Morley collects conference recognition for the first time in her career ... It is the third-straight season that the Spartans have had three student-athletes honored; MSU has had 42 All-Big Ten selections all-time, including 30 which have been under the guidance of 19-year head coach Kathie Klages ... Robinson ranks 21st in the nation on bars, fifth in the region and first in the Big Ten ... Morley is third in the nation, and is first in the region and conference on beam ... Curler ranks 29th nationally on beam and is third in the Big Ten, while Lopatofsky is seventh in the conference on floor.
| Women's Tennis |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: The Michigan State women's tennis team defeated Wisconsin, 4-3, on Sunday at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility in a five-hour match. With the win, the Spartans are now 6-4 at home as it marked head coach Simone Jardim's first career Big Ten Conference win.
This Week: The Spartans will return to action on Saturday, April 4, when they travel to State College, Pa., for a match against Penn State at 11 a.m.
Notes: Sophomore Whitney Wilson (Evansville, Ind.) leads the Spartans with a 19-11 singles record on the season ... Wilson is 3-1 when in the No. 4 singles slot ... The doubles tandem of Stephanie Kebler (Okemos, Mich.) and Elena Ivanova (Moscow, Russia) is 6-2 in its last eight matches, winning four straight ... The tandem of Kebler and junior Christine Milliken (Traverse City, Mich.) is a perfect 2-0 when partnered together ... The doubles pairing of freshman Ivanova and senior Ana Milosavljevic (Johannesburg, South Africa) is 2-0 on the season when seeing action at No. 2 doubles ... The team has won the doubles point in 11 of their 17 matches this season ... Freshman Dana Guentert (Lilburn, Ga.) is 8-2 in her last 10 completed matches, winning her last four; she is now 15-6 on the season ... Ivanova ranks second on the team in wins as she has posted 17 on the season ... Kebler and Milosavljevic each have 13 wins on the season.
| Men's Tennis |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: The Spartans continued Big Ten play against No. 58 Northwestern on March 28 and No. 26 Wisconsin on March 29. The Spartans fell to Northwestern, 5-2, and Wisconsin, 6-1, putting them at 12-7 overall and 0-4 in the Big Ten.
This Week: MSU will host No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday and No. 53 Penn State on Sunday; both matches will be played at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility with competition beginning at noon both days.
Notes: Senior Alex Forger (Okemos, Mich.) posted a win at the No. 2 position over Tobias Reitz of Northwestern, 6-4, 7-6 (3), picking up his eighth win of the season ... Freshman Ronnie Hulewicz (Tequesta, Fla.) was the only Spartan to pick up singles wins against both teams ... He defeated Northwestern's Alex Sanborn, 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7) at the No. 5 position ... Hulewicz also picked up a win over Wisconsin's Michael Dierberger, 2-6, 6-4, 10-8, improving to 16-2 overall, a team best ... The Spartans are 11-1 at home this season.
| Rowing |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: No. 7 MSU defeated No. 20 Notre Dame on Lake Ovid, 46-23, winning all six races. The three NCAA boats - the varsity eight, the second varsity eight and the varsity four - dominated the Irish as both eight boats won by open water. The varsity four, who trailed by open water with 750 meters to go, came back to win the race, taking the lead just before the finish.
This Week: MSU will compete against Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., in its first Big Ten competition of the season. The event will begin Friday at 4 p.m. and resume Saturday at 9 a.m.
Notes: All six boats are a combined 6-0 on the season ... The Spartans are ranked No. 7 in the nation and are the highest-ranked team in the Big Ten so far; three other Big Ten teams: Wisconsin (14), Michigan (15) and Minnesota (16), rank in the top 20 this season ... The next edition of the poll will be released on Wednesday. ... The MSU rowing program has qualified for the NCAA National Regatta in 10 of the last 11 seasons and will look to make it 11 of 12 this season ... MSU tied its best finish ever last season, finishing sixth overall at the National Regatta.
| Women's Golf |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: The 17th-ranked Michigan State women's golf team tied for 15th at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic in Athens, Ga., over the weekend ... the tournament was shortened to one round on Sunday due to rain ... the field featured 10 teams ranked in the top 25.
This Week: MSU will compete at the Bryan National Collegiate in Browns Summitt, N.C., Friday-Sunday ... the tournament is being hosted by Wake Forest.
Players Mentioned
