McAtee makes Three

With the weekend came the end of our third Lady Spartan poll. After seeing our lowest vote total (10) of the competition, joining Ms. Edinburgh and Ms. Furner in the finals for the title of Best Looking Lady Spartan will be volleyball standout Sarah McAtee (above and circled below).

With 60% 0f the votes, McAtee dominated her teammates. Kelly Crow (below left - 3 votes), Niki Clement (below center - 1 vote) and Nia Freeman (below right - 0 votes) couldn't keep pace with Sarah throughout the week.

With the bulk of voters (the Spartan baseball team) busy on the diamond improving their record to 18-5 on the season, the volleyball team didn't get the push of total votes that other sports have to this point, and allowed McAtee to lead from wire to wire.

Please check back over the next few weeks to partipate in the polls for the remaining Lady Spartan teams (cross country, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis and water polo). Beginning today and running throughout the week will be our cross country poll. Go Spartans!

And our second finalist is. . .

Aumornai Edinburgh (above). After five days of voting and 24 total tallies, the 6'0" forward from Sacramento, CA has won the title of best looking SJSU basketball player.

It was a nail biter as Aumornai barely edged out the other competitors to take the title. She received 7 total votes. Christina Calcagno (below, l, 6 votes), Sayja Sumler (below, c, 6 votes), and Natalie White (below, r, 5 votes) put up a great fight, but some late votes propelled Edinburgh to the title.

With the victory, Aumornai moves into the finals of the best looking female SJSU athlete where she will compete with the winners of the other Lady Spartan sports teams. Currently joining Edinburgh in the finals will be Shanelle Furner, a 5'6" midfielder from the soccer team. Keep visiting the blog to vote for the best looking athlete in each of SJSU's women's sports over the next few weeks. Congratulations to all of our beautiful competitors.

Back on a Roll

The Spartan baseball team is back to their winning ways. Great arms and great sticks combined to dominate Dartmouth 19-0 in San Jose on Friday night to run the Spartans winning streak to 7 straight. With the win the Spartans improve to 16-3 on the season and have supplanted themselves as on of the top teams in the nation so far this year. SJSU started scoring in bunches early and didn't stop until the game was over. They were spurred on by a seven run 2nd inning, which was highlighted by Kyle Bellows' (picture right) first home run of the season, a two out grand slam to straightaway center field. The Spartans finished with 27 hits on the night, which surprisingly isn't even their highest single game hit total this week (they collected 34 total hits in a 31-1 romping of Chicago State on Wednesday night).

On the mound, Max Peterson, the 6'2" left hander from San Diego (picture left) went 6.0 strong innings to improve his season record to 4-0. He struck out five, allowing three singles and no runs.

San Jose State concludes its current six-game homestand this week by hosting Fresno Pacific University on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for 2:00 p.m. at Municipal Stadium.

Tournament Time

While most college fans are eagerly anticipating the start of the NCAA tournament on Thursday, the Spartan men's and women's basketball teams have been busy preparing for a little tourney of their own. After both teams had abrupt exits from their conference tournaments last week they've been slowly re-acclimating themselves with "real" college life. While some teams celebrated St. Patrick's Day with round 1 games in the NIT and CBI, the Spartan Men and Women's basketball teams decided to spend their "Irish" day in a much more college oriented fashion. It was a noon kegger followed by their annual post season beer pong tournament (Spartan Men vs. the Lady Spartans). They may have missed the Dance, but who's the real winner?!?!

As you can see from the photo above, the Lady Spartans put up a valiant effort, but in the end the men's team prevailed when partners Tim Pierce and Robert Owens dominated the ladies team of Christina Calcagno and Sayja Sumler in the championship game, ultimately leading to Christina and Sayja having to slam 3.5 glasses of beer each. The men's win marks the third year in a row that the men's team has defeated the women (guys, guys, guys, guys!!!). In an interview after the championship game, an inebriated Calcagno told us that the lady Spartans have been preoccupied the past few days tracking the results of "the best looking Lady Spartan basketball player" poll and therefore hadn't been training as hard for the tournament as they should have. Oh well, is there really a loser in a beer pong tournament? I didn't think so. Congratulations to both teams on a successful St. Patrick's Day!

In other news, the San Jose State baseball team is back to their winning ways. The Spartans began the year with 9 straight wins and climbed to the #25 national ranking, but dropped three games last week to drop to 9-3 heading into the weekend. With a good weekend and a good start to the week, the team is now on a 3 game win streak and have improved their record to 12-3.

Disclaimer: Any names included in this post are completely fictional and if they happen to be the exact same as someone who actually plays for the San Jose State basketball team(s) it was not done intentionally and does not in anyway implicate any particular individuals

No Hands Please

And the winner is. . .

Shanelle Furner. That's right, after six heated days of voting and 18 total votes, the 5'6" San Carlos, CA native has won the title of best looking SJSU Soccer player.

Shanelle received 50% of the total votes and won handily over Lauren Moniz (5 votes), Angela Santoro (3 votes), and Kelsy Holm (1 vote).

Congratulations Shanelle. With the victory, Shanelle moves into the final round of the best looking female SJSU athlete where she will compete with the winners of the other Lady Spartan sports teams. Keep visiting the blog to vote for the best looking athlete in each of SJSU's women's sports over the next few weeks. For all of our competitors, I want you to know that you are all beautiful and wonderful athletes and we appreciate your participation in our "blog tournaments."

Exit Like an Ole

Well, it wasn't to be. Since my last post, the Spartans were never within eight points, and their run in the tournament (if you can call one and done a run) is over. Now to the title of the post. The middle schooler in me couldn't pass up the opportunity to celebrate the fact that although we lost we went out in true style by "exiting like an Ole."

Final Score:
Nevada - 78
San Jose State -
So, just because you didn't have a winning season, and your WAC tournament run was cut short, don't fret San Jose State Spartans. Hold your heads high and be proud of yourselves (I know Jesse James and Abel are) for there are not many teams, like you, that get to exit like an Ole!

In Progress

Okay, just a quick update on the WAC tournament. Right now SJSU is hanging in there against Nevada. We're down 9 (60-51) with 7:02 left in the game. Need to go on a run, but there's still a chance. I'll get the bracket up here shortly. There have already been some surprise teams punching their ticket to the Big Dance and let's hope that in seven minutes the Spartans are a step closer. Below is the link to the WAC tournament brackets (men and women):

http://www.wacsports.com/fls/10100/photos/basketball/2009/2009brackets.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=10100

On the women's side, there would be no surprise ending to a sub par season. Hawaii walked all over the Lady Spartans in a WAC tournament play in game and ended up trouncing the Spartans 70-57 to mercifully bring their 2-28 season to an end.

I was hoping while I wrote this that the Spartan men would have inched closer, however, they are now down 55-68 with 3:24 left and it isn't looking promising. I'll update this post when the game is done.

The Steroid Spot

After the impressive weekend, the Spartan baseball team has cracked the top 25 in the D1 national rankings. In the poll that was released on Monday, the Spartans are ranked in the "steroid" spot, good ol' #25. Why is it called the steroid spot you ask?

There is your answer. Let's hope the ranking doesn't give them a big head. (Okay, that was lame, but in honor of my Dad, who would never be shamed by a joke so dumb, I had to do it.)

This week will be a great test for the Spartans as San Francisco and newly #15 ranked Cal Poly come come to town on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

Hey batter, batter. . .

. . . swing batter! A great weekend on the diamond has the Spartan baseball team capturing some very well deserved national attention. After a weekend series sweep of the University of the Pacific (UOP) Tigers, the Spartans have raised their season record to 9-0 and are one of only three remaining Division 1 baseball teams in the nation with an unblemished record (Georgia and Virginia being the other two). The Spartans kicked off the weekend with a 5-4 win on Friday night and then downed the Tigers again on Saturday by a score of 9-3. They finished up the weekend with a 6-3 win this afternoon. The offensive star of the series for the Spartans was junior shortstop Kyle Bellows. This afternoon the San Jose native turned in his third straight three hit while scoring two runs, collecting an RBI and stealing two bases. The Spartans are heading into a full week as they will be playing five games in the next seven days and hope to improve on their 9-0 start. They are sure to garner votes when the next NCAA poll comes out.

SPARTAN WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS TEAM WILL RIDE MOMENTUM INTO WAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Spartan women's gymnastics team won their meet today vs. Utah State improving their record to 14-1, the best in school history. Veronica Porte made her final meet at Spartan Gym a memorable one by winning the all around with a 38.625. Next up for the Spartans is the WAC Championships on Saturday, March 21, at Sacramento State.

OTHER WEEKEND SPORTS
In other Spartan action this weekend, the softball team was beat in 3 of 4 games by Cal State Bakersfield to drop to 5-13 on the season. Next up for the softball team is a pair of double headers in San Jose this week vs. Illinois State and Vermont respectively prior to hosting the National Invitation Softball Tournament Friday and Saturday of next weekend.

The women's tennis team picked up two wins over the weekend with a 6-1 win on Saturday vs. Cal State Bakersfield and a 4-3 win against Southern Utah today. They improved their season record to 5-3. Next they head to Palm Springs and will be playing Gonzaga, Sacred Heart and Toledo Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.

Double Ouch

I found out one discouraging thing last night. The SJSU fan base does not spread wide enough throughout the country to allow any major internet sites to carry live broadcasts or even internet play by play of my beloved team. Therefore I am relegated to pulling up the scores (in the full scoreboard section of Yahoo or ESPN) and tracking my games that way. It's okay though because that's what a real die hard fan does I guess.

And speaking of discouraging, things didn't get much better when the games got underway at 9:05 CST last night. The SJSU Spartan men kept within spitting distance (insert Seberson joke here) and cut Nevada's lead to two with 16 minutes left in the game, but then they let it get away as the Wolf Pack went on a 19-5 run and went on to win 89-66. CJ Webster had a good showing in a losing effort for the Spartans as he scored 22 points and brought down a Charles Barkley-esque 12 rebounds. The loss drops the Spartans to 13-15 on the season and to 6-9 in WAC play and drops them even further out of contention for a place in everyone's second favorite post season tournament, the Men's NIT.

On the Women's side, the end margin wasn't as big, but as my oh-so-cheerful high school synchronized swimming coach always told me, a loss is a loss. The Lady Spartans (if that's possible) went into halftime only down three points to the Lady Aggies of Utah State. However, they let the gap widen (Manuel, keep your mind on basketball please) throughout the second half and ended up on the short end of a 62-51 finish. The one bright spot for the Lady Spartans was the play of Senior guard Natalie White from Dubuque, IA. She ended the day 7-9 shooting with 19 total points. This brings the Lady Spartans regular season to a conclusion that couldn't come quick enough . They finish with a very disappointing 2-27 overall record and 1-15 in WAC competition with their only wins coming in a 49-48 nailbiter vs Sacramento St. back in November and 54-50 trouncing or Hawaii in early January. As pessimistic as this may sound, I just don't think the Lady Spartans have the resume to be considered for everyone's FAVORITE post season tournament, the Women's NIT, and unless they have some un-paralleled run in the WAC tournament to get a very unprobable berth in the Women's NCAA tourney they will be put out of their misery very soon.

Checking out for the day. Have a great weekend and Go Spartans!

It was Destiny

Okay, shortly I will be logging on to live game tracking and checking out my men's and women's basketball teams playing their Thursday night games on the west coast. But before I do I had to tell you about my "ah ha" moment from this afternoon. I was in my cube daydreaming about anything except the work that was in front of me and the light went on. I was meant to pick San Jose State out of that hat on Thursday night. For all of those Spanish speaking blog followers out there (Manuel, Sprouter, and certainly NOT Chad) can you translate my "team for life" please? Okay, I'll save you the trouble, my "team for life" is the Saint Joe State Spartans. There is now no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice. It was meant to be and I'm so honored that I can share my destiny with all of you through this blog. Go Spartans!

Big Night and Weekend

What great timing to become an SJSU die hard. Thursday is the beginning of a big weekend for my teams. The women's basketball team will be playing at Utah State tonight at 7:00 in their final regular season WAC game of the year and the men's basketball team will be at Nevada for a 7:00 showdown as well. I will do my best to find some type of internet feed of the games so I can see my favorite basketball teams do battle!

And those match-ups are only the beginning. The softball team has a noon game on Friday against CSU Bakersfield to open up a weekend four game series. And Max Peterson (the preseason WAC Pitcher of the Year) and the Spartan baseball team head to Pacific for a two game series (Fri/Sat) before returning home for the third game of the series on Sunday. While I'm keeping an eye on these games I'll also be paying close attention to a the women's gymnastics team, the women's tennis team and the women's water polo team who all have big games this weekend. And after all of that I'm led right back to where I started as the men's basketball team heads to Utah State to replace the women as they play the Aggies in a big WAC Saturday matchup.

Here's to a great weekend of Spartan sports!!!

I Pulled a Spartan out of a Hat

A while back my buddies and I decided it was time to spice up our college sports watching. What better way to do that than by drafting a new team for life? As "Mr. Texas Tech," Russell Putnam wrote on his blog, "the idea originated with a group of students at the University of Minnesota. While attending school, the group of students became fed up with the fact that all of their college sports teams were perennial losers. So the students remedied their problem by drafting a new team for life."

After much anticipation, last night was the big night. We put 103 colleges into a hat and were slated to draw two teams and then pick one to be our new "team for life." ( Note: almost all D1 schools that had a football (bowl subdivision) and basketball team were included - we eliminated a few teams due to the fact that we have friends that already support those teams.) We gathered at Houlihan's in Richfield with grandiose thoughts of being able to cheer our Connecticut Huskies to a Big East title or to usher our Seminoles of Florida State into the post Bobby Bowden era. While I was hoping I wouldn't have to pledge my allegiance to Lane Kiffin or Bob Stoops, I was ready to do just that if it was in the cards. I was actually ready for just about anything! Ultimately, I wasn't disappointed. While I can't say I expected to have to choose between the Zips of Akron and the Spartans of San Jose State, I couldn't be happier with my new team for life. Here's to the beginning of a life of servitude to my new team. Go Spartans!!!