This past weekend saw Matt Gulbin and Ryan Eckley get picked in the sixth round of the NFL Draft while several other Spartans signed undrafted free agent deals. We also began our preview series featuring new MSU hoopers, starting with Carlos Medlock Jr. and Anton Bonke.
While all of this was going on, there were still other happenings in the MSU Athletic Department.
Let’s start with Men’s Tennis who, after tying Ohio State for the Big Ten regular season crown, took the tournament championship from
the Buckeyes on Saturday night in Ojai, CA. It was the Spartans’ first conference tournament title in 59 years and, for a couple of reasons, it took Michigan State almost seven hours to earn the victory.
First, a late-season Southern California storm moving through Ventura County on Saturday caused multiple weather delays in the championship match. Second, it was just a hard fought match between the Spartans and Buckeyes that went the distance.
Unfortunately, I am by no means a college tennis expert, but it looks like these dual-team matches are a best-of-seven format. The teams played six singles matches, with MSU and OSU each winning three. So, the doubles matches determined the final outcome. There were three doubles matches and whoever won two of those three would get the tie-breaking fourth point. The Spartans won the first two doubles matches and were up in the third when that match was called because MSU already had the needed two wins. If anyone knows more about the scoring system for college tennis, please put it in the comments.
Michigan State got to the final by defeating 9th-seeded Indiana 4-1 and 4th-seeded UCLA 4-2.
The Spartans now wait to see where they will be headed for the NCAA Regionals, which begin on May 1.
Women’s Golf was also in action at the Big Ten Championships at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, CA. Michigan State was in sixth place after day one of the three-day competition and had moved into a tie for fourth after day two.
A rough Sunday, however, did the Spartans in. MSU shot a 26 over par in the final round, which dropped them to eighth place of the 18 Big Ten teams. USC, Ohio State, and Purdue took the top three spots.
MSU senior Taylor Kehoe finished at three over par to tie for fifth place individually.
Michigan State will learn its NCAA tournament fate tomorrow.
Track & Field competed as a split squad over the weekend, sending athletes to the Penn Relays as well as the Extra Weekend Meet at Grand Valley State University, where the Spartans won 10 events.
At the Penn Relays, MSU’s women’s 4×800 relay team finished sixth and bested the previous school record by over 3.5 seconds with a time of 8:33.40.
The Spartans close the regular season this weekend at the Jesse Owens Invitational in Columbus, OH.
Baseball took two of three games from Maryland over a high-scoring weekend at McClane Stadium in East Lansing. After dropping the first game of the series on Friday by an 18-10 margin, MSU bounced back to win 12-4 on Saturday and 13-1 on Sunday. A nine run second inning in the series finale put the game away early for Michigan State.
The Spartans are now 15-25 overall and 9-14 in the Big Ten, which puts them in 12th place of the 17 Big Ten baseball programs. Next up for Michigan State is the league-leading UCLA Bruins, who will bring a perfect 21-0 conference mark to East Lansing for a three game series beginning on Friday.
Softball also took on Maryland at home over the weekend but went in the opposite direction of the baseball team. MSU won the opener on Friday, 4-3, but then fell in the next two games. Maryland blanked the Spartans 3-0 on Saturday and then closed out the series with a 7-2 victory on Sunday.
MSU is, unfortunately, tied with Illinois for last place amongst the Big Ten’s 17 softball-playing members with a 3-17 conference record.
The Spartans host Michigan this weekend for a three game series that will close out their season. The Wolverines are 8-13 in conference play and sit in 11th place. Hopefully the Spartans can end a difficult season with at least a series victory against their rivals.
Gymnastics concluded their season by sending three athletes to the NCAA Championships in Fort Worth, TX from April 16-18 but, on Saturday, we learned that Spartans Assistant Head Coach Nicole Jones had been named the head coach at Nebraska.
Jones had been at MSU for the past 16 years and served as the AHC for the past nine. She helped head coach Mike Rowe lead the program to five consecutive NCAA Regional Finals, a runner-up finish at this year’s Big Ten Championships, and a conference championship in 2025.
