Spartans seek revenge in Big Ten Tournament

After 19 games of hard work, sweat and tough injuries, the possibility of playing only one more game brings a different feeling to the No. 10 MSU field hockey team.

“It’s a little bit more (of an) adrenaline rush,” senior forward Michelle Ciliberti said. “It’s a little bit more focused anxiety.

“You know that you have to come out there and perform your best, if you don’t you’re going home. So, it pushes us just a touch bit more, you have a little bit more fire, it’s beneficial for us a team.”

The Spartans enter the Big Ten Tournament today as the No. 3 seed and take on Northwestern in the first match. MSU beat the Wildcats 3-1 on Oct. 10.

“We’re excited to start the second season this year,” head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof said.

“We had some challenges the last two or three weeks prior to this past weekend, but we’ve become more healthy again — that’s what we are looking forward to, (being) back at full strength for the Big Ten Tournament.”

Last weekend, the team finally got over the hump of beating a top-ranked opponent after besting then-No. 8 Penn State 2-1 with a goal in the closing seconds. Prior to last weekend, the team was 0-3 in games against current top -10 opponents, despite being in the top 10 itself for the entire season.

But tough losses to teams such as No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 3 Syracuse or No. 8 Iowa haven’t dampened the team’s spirit heading into the conference tournament.

“To me, we’re the best team in the Big Ten,” van de Kerkhof said. “Unfortunately, the two games that we did lose were due to our own performance.

“So we didn’t lose the game because our opponents were better. So we just have to put things together and in my opinion we still have a chance to go home with smiles on.”

Having played every Big Ten team in the regular season also helps in preparation for the tournament, van de Kerkhof said.

“You get the better feel when you play the teams and face them in live play instead of just watching them on tape,” van de Kerkhof said.

“You see a little better who their key players are or what kind of patterns they do, as well as what you do when you apply pressure on certain plays and how they react on it.”

Should the Spartans defeat Northwestern, they would go on to play the winner of the match between Iowa and Indiana. Each team brings a different look, as the Spartans dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to Iowa two weeks ago, while it trounced Indiana 9-1 on Oct. 3. However, if the teams meet, the Hoosiers would have home field advantage, as the tournament is being played in Bloomington, Ind.

Whichever team the Spartans face, the players seem ready to get the tournament started.

“I think we all just want to win and show we are the best in the Big Ten even though we didn’t have the best record in the regular season,” freshman forward Chantae Miller said. “It’s just a lot of us proving to ourselves and everybody else that we are the best.”