With the Big Ten Tournament approaching, the MSU women’s soccer team attempted to add two late-season road wins to its record.
Only one turned out that way - the Spartans traveled to Ann Arbor on Friday and lost 2-1 to No. 23 Michigan, but beat Detroit 3-0 on Sunday in Detroit.
Strong winds created difficulties for the players early on Friday, but it didn’t stop sophomore forward Kristi Arrington scored within the first six minutes of the game on an assist from sophomore forward Tiffany Laskowski.
“I was very proud of the way we prepared for the game,” head coach Tom Saxton said. “In spite of the weather, we played tough and got on the board early.”
But the remainder of the game didn’t go quite as well for the Spartans (8-7-2, 4-5-1 Big Ten).
The momentum shift began with a foul to sophomore defenseman Andrea Sied 20 minutes into the game, that caused her to leave the game with a knee injury.
From that point on, U-M’s (10-6-1, 8-2) defense controlled the Spartan offense, holding MSU to six shots in the game.
By contrast, U-M kept pushing towards the Spartan net, posting 16 shots.
Wolverine forward Abby Crumpton tied the game 20 minutes into the second half with assists from forward Kate Morgan and midfielder Theresa Dwyer.
Eight minutes before the end of the game, Crumpton scored again and sealed the 100th career win for U-M head coach head coach Debbie Rademacher. Wolverine defenseman Erika Kleinholz contributed on the play with an assist.
“Their kid came forward and made a couple of plays, she took advantage of Andy (Sied) coming out,” Saxton said.
The game marked the last Big Ten contest of the season for the Spartans, but the team didn’t relax for Detroit on Sunday.
“If we win the remainder of our games, it would give us 10 wins,” Saxton said. “So even though there wasn’t the pressure of a Big Ten game, we put pressure on ourselves.”
The team came one win closer to that goal on Sunday, assisted by an increased offensive performance by the team.
Arrington scored two goals against the Titans, extending her scoring streak to five games and sophomore midfielder Trisha Kenny provided the Spartans with the third goal of the game.
The Spartans experienced offensive difficulties midway through the season causing rotations in the lineup, but Sunday’s offensive output is a welcome sign that the team has progressed, Saxton said.
“Recently, even though we didn’t score more than one goal against Michigan, we’ve played a lot better offensively,” he said. “We’ve definitely settled in.”
The Spartans travel to Toledo at 3 p.m. Wednesday to take on the Rockets in their second-to-last game of the season.
