Spartan Women Continue Homestand Against Wright State Sunday

Sunday, November 12

East Lansing, Mich.

2 PM

Michigan State University

Wright State

Spartan Women Continue Homestand Against Wright State Sunday

11/11/2023 11:08:00 AM | Women's Basketball

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This is only the third meeting between the Spartans and the Raiders.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State women's basketball continues its four-game homestand on Sunday, Nov. 12, as the Spartans take on Wright State at 2 p.m. at the Breslin Center. The Spartans captured their season opener with an 87-62 win over Oakland on Nov. 8. AJ Evans and Lexy Alston will be on the call for BTN+.

• Junior guard DeeDee Hagemann netted a career-high 23 points, bettering her previous career-best of 20 points, done at Penn State on Feb. 25, 2023. Hagemann also tied a career-high with five 3-pointers Wednesday night, matching five treys vs. Western Michigan last season on Nov. 15, 2022

• This is the only the third meeting between the Spartans and the Raiders with MSU leading 2-0. The last time the two teams met was in 2018 with Michigan State coming out on top 84-68.

• Spartan head coach Robyn Fralick comes to Michigan State after five seasons at Bowling Green. Associate head coach Kim Cameron, assistant coaches Kim Kasza, Marwan Miller join Director of Player Development Dean Lockwood and Director of Recruiting Joel Whymer on this year's staff.

• Fralick becomes the fourth Spartan women's basketball head coach to win their opening game as MSU head coach, joining Dominic Marino in 1975-76, who also won his opener over Oakland; Joanne P. McCallie in 2000-01 and Suzy Merchant in 2007.

SCOUTING WRIGHT STATE
Wright State comes into the meeting with Michigan State with an 0-1 record after falling to Southern Indiana on the road on Nov. 6, 67-63. WSU had three players score in double figures, led by Alexis Hutchison, who had a game-high 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting in her Raider debut. Layne Ferrell added 16 points, while Kacee Baumhower chipped in with 10 points in the loss.

Head coach Kari Hoffman is in her third season at the helm of the Raiders. She came to WSU after a successful career at Cedarville. She holds a career record of 118-82.

SERIES HISTORY VS. RAIDERS
Michigan State and Wright State have a very brief history with MSU leading, 2-0. The first meeting was in 1987 with the Spartans coming out on top 67-61. The teams didn't meet again until 2018 also in East Lansing. Michigan State dominated that matchup 84-68.

In the meeting in 2018, Shay Colley was the top scorer with 21 points. Tory Ozment is the only player on the current team that played in that contest adding two points.

HEY, I KNOW YOU
When the Spartans take on Wright State, junior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate will see a familiar face. Her sister, Jada, is a graduate forward at WSU after spending four seasons at Tiffin.

BLOCK PARTY
Graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault set a new career high with five against Oakland on Nov. 8 in the season opener. Ayrault was the first Spartan with five blocks since Branndais Agee have five against Minnesota on Feb. 21, 2016.

KIMBALL SHINES IN SEASON DEBUT
Sophomore guard Abbey Kimball tied a career-high with her 13 points against Oakland, logging her second career double-figure outing in matching her previous career-best of 13 points vs. Rutgers last season on Jan. 22, 2023. The game against Oakland was also her first career start. Kimball also netted a career-high three 3-pointers on Nov. 8, topping her previous top mark of two triples last season in same game vs. Rutgers.

WELCOME HOME, COACH
Michigan State officially tipped off the head coach Robyn Fralick era with Wednesday's Victory for MSU over Oakland. Fralick, a native of Okemos, Michigan, was hired as the sixth head women's basketball head coach at Michigan State on March 31, 2023. Fralick becomes the fourth Spartan women's basketball head coach to win their opening game as MSU head coach, joining Dominic Marino in 1975-76, who also won his opener over Oakland; Joanne P. McCallie in 2000-01 and Suzy Merchant in 2007.Mikki Baile lost her opener, the first game in program history in MSU's inaugural game on Jan. 30, 1973, and Karen Langeland lost her opening game as the Spartans' head coach in to open the 1976-77 season.

FITTING LIKE A GLOVE
Four of the five Spartans to make their debut for the Spartans scored in their first game for the Green & White against Oakland on Nov. 8: junior guard Jocelyn Tate with three points; redshirt-junior guard Lauren Ross with two points; freshman forward Mary Meng had six points. The fifth Spartan newcomer, freshman guard Bree Robinson didn't score but dished out two assists and swiped one steal.

PLAY THE BEST TO BE THE BEST
Michigan State will play seven teams that are ranked in the preseason top 25 polls, led by No. 3/3 Iowa (Jan. 2). At the Cancun Challenge, the Spartans will take on No. 22/23 Creighton. Big Ten teams Indiana, Ohio State, Maryland, Illinois and Michigan are all ranked in at least one of the preseason polls.

MEET THE NEWBIES
MSU introduces five newcomers to the team this season, including three freshmen and two transfers. The three freshmen are guard Bree Robinson (Mississauga, Ontario/Webb School), guard Kennedy Blair (Dearborn, Mich. /Divine Child) and center Mary Meng (Grafton, Ohio/Midview.)

The Spartans also added two transfers to this season's squad. Junior guard Jocelyn Tate comes to MSU from Bowling Green State University, where she averaged 10.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for the Falcons. Junior guard Lauren Ross has played in the Breslin Center before, transferring from Western Michigan. She was averaging 21.8 ppg for the Broncos before tearing her ACL on Jan. 11, 2023.

HALL OF FAMER
Spartan All-American Tori Jankoska was inducted into the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 5. Jankoska was a four-time all-state player for Freeland High School from 2010-13 where she scored a Saginaw County record 2,333 career points, also good for No. 9 all-time in the state of Michigan. During her four years at MSU, Jankoska (2013-17) became the program record holder in career points (2,212), field goals made (707), 3-pointers made (320), and finished second in assists (489). She is currently an assistant coach at Virginia.

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
Michigan State head coach Robyn Fralick has announced guard/forward Julia Ayrault and guard Moira Joiner as team captains, as voted on by the players on the 2023-24 women's basketball team. The duo are the first captains that Michigan State has had since the 2019-20 season, when Victoria Gaines and Taryn McCutcheon were tabbed team leaders.
Ayrault is a guard/forward graduate student from Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. She is in her fifth season with the Spartans after red-shirting the 2021-22 season with a foot injury. Ayrault has played in 77 games at Michigan State, starting 15. Last season, she played in all 30 games, averaging 3.6 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.

Joiner is a guard, who is a graduate student from Saginaw, Michigan. She is also in her fifth season with MSU after missing much of the 2021-22 season with concussion symptoms. She has played in 95 games at Michigan State, starting 54. Joiner had a breakout campaign last season averaging 10.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

LAST TIME OUT
Junior guard DeeDee Hagemann helped open the Robyn Fralick era with a bang, leading the Michigan State women's basketball team to an 87-62 win over Oakland in the season opener Wednesday at the Breslin Center.

Fralick becomes the fourth Spartan women's basketball head coach to win their opening game as MSU head coach, joining Dominic Marino in 1975-76, who also won his opener over Oakland; Joanne P. McCallie in 2000-01 and Suzy Merchant in 2007.

The Spartans have now won 10-straight season openers, improving to 1-0. Oakland has now evened out its record at 1-1.

Hagemann set a new career high with 23 points, going 5-for-6 from beyond the arc. Her previous career high was 20 against Penn State on Feb. 25, 2023. She also added five assists and four rebounds. Sophomore guard Abbey Kimball, who made her first career start, tied her career high with 13 points and adding a career-high five assists. Graduate guard Moira Joiner scored 12 points, while junior forward Isaline Alexander scored 10 off the bench. Graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault set a new career high with five blocks.

GUESS WHO'S BACK
Despite losing its top two leading scorers in Kamaria McDaniel (graduation) and Matilda Ekh (transfer), Michigan State welcomes back graduate guard Moira Joiner, who averaged 10.1 ppg last season. Junior guard DeeDee Hagemann was fifth on the team in scoring, averaging 9.3 ppg and was sixth in the Big Ten in assists, 4.9 apg averaging apg.

LOOKING AT THE SCHEDULE
For the third-straight season, the conference will play an 18-game Big Ten schedule. MSU also played an 18-game schedule in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. The conference additionally had 18-game schedules in both 2015-16 and 2014-15.

Nine of the Spartans' 2023-24 regular-season opponents competed in the NCAA Tournament last season, including both of Michigan State's opponents in the Cancun Challenge, James Madison and Creighton. From the Big Ten portion of the schedule, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Purdue and Ohio State reached the NCAA Tournament, including the Hawkeyes advancing to the National Championship game.

HEADING SOUTH
The Spartans will play in two tournaments this season. Over Thanksgiving, Michigan State will head to the Cancun Challenge in Mexico to take on James Madison (Nov. 24) and Creighton (Nov. 25). Before breaking for the Holiday break, the Spartans will play in the Cherokee Invitational in Cherokee, North Carolina, facing Richmond (Dec. 20) and either Coastal Carolina or UT-Chattanooga (Dec. 21).