Spartan Sports Round Up

WOMEN’S TENNIS fell to Michigan at home on Saturday and failed to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, which begins later this week. Michigan State finishes the spring duals season at 11-12 overall and 4-9 in the Big Ten.

MEN’S and WOMEN’S GOLF were both in Columbus, OH over the weekend. The women finished fourth of 14 teams at the Buckeye Invitational while the men were eighth of 16 teams at the Robert Kepler Collegiate.

The men will remain in Ohio for one more day, teeing off at the Muirfield Shootout in Dublin, OH later today. These will be the Spartans’ final rounds before the Big Ten Championships, which take place May 1-3 in North Plains, OR.

The women’s Big Ten Championship is next weekend, from April 24-26, at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, CA.

BASEBALL had a busy week, starting with an 11-9 loss to Oakland on Tuesday before having Wednesday’s scheduled game against Western Michigan canceled due to bad weather.

Over the weekend, MSU Baseball made their first-ever trip to the state of Washington, where took two of three games from the Huskies. The Spartans won in Seattle by a scores of 6-4 on Friday and 13-8 on Saturday but were unable to get the sweep when Washington closed the series with an 8-5 win on Sunday.

This week, MSU (14-23 overall; 8-13 B1G) hosts Notre Dame for a single game on Wednesday and then Maryland comes to McClane Stadium for a three game weekend series.

Unfortunately, a rough season continued for SOFTBALL as the Spartans were swept at Northwestern this weekend. Michigan State (15-28; 2-15) dropped an 8-7 decision in the middle game of the series on Saturday but failed to score a run on Friday and Sunday while giving up a combined 18 runs to the Wildcats in those two games.

ROWING was at Lake Natoma near Sacramento, CA for the Big Ten Invitational Regatta on Saturday and Sunday. A Big Ten Invitational event in Sacramento still sounds odd but, nevertheless, the Spartans lined up with Big Ten foes Washington, Wisconsin, USC, Ohio State, and Indiana as well as non-conference competitors Oregon State, Sacramento State, Washington State, Notre Dame, and San Diego.

In the Saturday morning session, the Spartans’ varsity eight crew bested Sacramento State and Wisconsin but finished behind Washington and Oregon State. The finish order was exactly the same for MSU’s second varsity eight.

On Saturday afternoon, the 1V8 improved to a second-place finish behind USC but ahead of Washington State, San Diego, and Wisconsin again. The 2V8 settled for another third-place behind Washington State and USC but ahead of San Diego and Wisconsin.

The Spartans had a rougher go of it in the final racing session on Sunday morning. The 1V8 was fourth of five ahead of Notre Dame but back of Ohio State, Oregon State, and Indiana while the 2V8 ended their regatta with a fifth-place finish.

The Spartans next race at the Dale England Cup in Bloomington, IN on May 2.