EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State women's soccer fell to No. 19 Michigan, 3-2, on Saturday night in a doubleheader at DeMartin Stadium for Alumni Day. This was the first game of a four-game homestand to conclude the regular season.
MSU falls to 8-7-1 on the season with a 1-6-1 mark in conference play. No. 19 Michigan improves to 12-1-1 on the season and 7-1-1 in Big Ten matches.
The Spartans now have a record of 6-2-0 in East Lansing this season.
At halftime, the Spartans honored over 30 Michigan State women's soccer alumni and their families as part of Alumni Day festivities.
"It was a great night for soccer, a fantastic crowd and a great turnout by our alumni; it was a night you dream of as a college player," MSU head coach
Tom Saxton said. "It was a big stage and again we'd like to have our first 20 minutes back for sure but we responded in the second half and made a game out of it."
Michigan had the advantage in the first half, but the Spartans contested with a surge in the second 45 to challenge the Wolverines.Redshirt-freshman goalkeeper
Lauren Kozal had a career-high 11 saves through the 90 minutes.
Michigan got on the board first early in the first half, with Nicki Hernandez finding Hannah Blake across the box at the top of the seventh minute, who fired a shot into the low left corner of the net past Kozal.
Less than four minutes later, the Wolverines went up 2-0 with Janiece Joyner finding the head of Meredith Haakenson.
The Spartans were able to counter the Michigan attack for the remainder of the half, while the Wolverines holding a 14-5 shot advantage in the first 45.
In the second half, the Spartans gathered momentum after freshman defender
Bria Schrotenboer got her head on a corner kick by junior midfielder
Bella Jodzis in the 62
nd minute to cut the Wolverine lead in half.
This was Schrotenboer's first career goal as a Spartan and she became the ninth different Spartan to get on the score sheet this season.
MSU continued to apply pressure in the attacking zone, looking for an equalizer.
In the 75
th minute, sophomore midfielder
Sam Sklarski had a long pass up field to a waiting freshman forward
Paige Webber on the left side. Webber made a nice run and fired a rocket right over the fingertips of Michigan goalkeeper Hillary Beall.
Webber tallied her sixth career goal and third game tying goal, while Sklarski had her second assist of the season.
With the game all tied up, Michigan was able to break the tie in the 84
th minute when Sura Yekka picked up a miss kicked ball and beat Kozal one-on-one.
Michigan State had a last minute opportunity when sophomore forward
Camryn Evans headed a ball to the top of the net, but Beall was able to grab it before the ball crossed into the net.
"It's not surprising that we showed character," Saxton said. "We played much better in the second half and had a couple great goals to equalize - unfortunately we couldn't hold up at the end."
UP NEXT: Michigan State continues its four-game homestand next week with two matches in East Lansing. MSU will host Maryland on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. before hosting No. 12 Rutgers for senior day on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m.