Field hockey team has home-field advantage for championship

After seeing its Big Ten tournament hopes dashed at the hands of Iowa the past two seasons, the No. 8 MSU field hockey team will have its shot at redemption Friday when it faces the Hawkeyes in the conference tournament semifinals at Ralph Young Field.

The Hawkeyes have earned big, late-season victories the last two years against the Spartans, defeating them in the conference semifinals in 2007 and 2008 and knocking the Spartans out of the NCAA Tournament in the regional final last season.

This season, however, MSU comes in more confident after having won the Big Ten regular season outright and earning a 3-0 win at Iowa earlier in the season.

“It’s nice that you can look back at a solid performance in a series of games and not worry too much about those outcomes of those games,” head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof said. “That should give us confidence going into postseason play, and let’s continue to do what we’ve been doing — just improve every game.”

Iowa defeated the Spartans by identical 3-2 overtime scores in the 2007 and 2008 conference semifinals and went on to win the Big Ten Tournament both years. The Hawkeyes soared past MSU three times last season en route to a Final Four appearance.

This season’s team has experienced some ups and downs, but the Hawkeyes boast one of the Big Ten’s stingiest defenses, allowing just nine goals in six conference regular season games. The Hawkeyes’ goals-against average is second in the conference only to that of the Spartans, who’ve only allowed seven goals.

The fourth-seeded Hawkeyes earned a date with the top-seeded Spartans by virtue of Thursday’s five-goal performance against Michigan. The Hawkeyes scored the fewest goals of any Big Ten team during the conference regular season, but jumped to a 3-0 lead early in the second half Thursday, and went on to down the Wolverines 5-3.

If Iowa’s offense carries through to the game at 12:15 p.m. Friday at Ralph Young Field, senior goalie Elissa Unger and the Spartan defense will have to continue their dominance of late to help MSU’s chances.

“(We’re) focusing a lot on our defense and just obliterating shots in general, and I think the defense has been working great and it’s been showing in our game,” Unger said.

MSU enters the match with a 10-game winning streak after going 6-0 in the Big Ten and earning a bye in Thursday’s opening round of tournament play. The Spartans are hosting the tournament for the first time since 1998 and should be boosted by the home crowd.

The first day of tournament action also saw the No. 7 seed Penn State upset No. 2 Ohio State, 2-1. The Nittany Lions advanced to the other semifinal set for 2 p.m., Friday. The winners of each semifinal will meet in the tournament championship game, set for noon Sunday.

Both semifinals and the final will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.

“I think we’ve been working on improving every week, and right now we’ve gotten into a good groove and a good routine of things and it’s working out for us,” Unger said.