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.