Louisville, Ky. - As the final horn sounded Friday, freshman goalkeeper Christina Kirkaldy stared downfield at the scoreboard in disbelief.
The sound signaled an end to the No. 3 field hockey team's Cinderella season and to its chances at becoming the first MSU women's team to bring home a national championship.
The pain from the 3-0 heartbreaking loss to No. 2 Wake Forest was written across the women's faces. Sophomore back Judith van Haeringen hung her head in despair. MSU's three departing seniors - midfielders Julia Adams and Cynthia Martin and back Jenny Sanders - crowded together, fighting back tears.
Never before had a Spartan field hockey team reached the Final Four. But from the moment the team's bus broke down en route to the game, something wasn't right for MSU.
The Spartans' signature offense was curiously off, on the shallow end of a 17-3 shot count while mustering just one shot on goal the entire match. Instead of controlling the game, MSU spent much of the time defending its own net.
"Under those circumstances, I think our team held up really well," Spartan head coach Michele Madison said. "Sometimes you need a little luck, too, and that was not on our side tonight."
Wake Forest later advanced to Sunday's final, where it downed Penn State (19-5) 2-0 to win the school's first ever NCAA Field Hockey Championship.
Even with the loss, the Spartans have set several landmarks this season - including the most wins in club history (23) - and look to remain strong next year, losing only three athletes to graduation.
But, at least for this game, things weren't going well for the Spartans.
"Wake spread the midfield really well. They played sideline to sideline," Madison said. "We didn't get a lot of space to attack, and they moved the ball really fast. The difference was that we couldn't generate our attack."
Despite the Demon Deacons peppering Kirkaldy the game remained scoreless after 30 minutes thanks to several key stops from both Kirkaldy and her defenders.
At 30:40, however, the game broke open as Wake Forest forward Kelly Dostal let loose a bullet that flew over Kirkaldy, struck the right post and dropped inside the cage to give the Demon Deacons the only strike they'd need.
Less than a minute later, Wake Forest struck again. Kirkaldy went down in a full layout, stopping the initial shot, but the ball skirted over the goalkeeper's pads and into the cage for the 2-0 lead. Midfielder Ariel Meyers was credited with the tally.
Facing a 2-0 deficit at halftime, junior back Alexandra Kyser said the threat of the loss actually gave energy to the squad.
"I wouldn't say disheartening was the right word. It actually got us fired up for the second half," she said. "Their two goals obviously only took a minute to score. We could have turned it around just as quickly as they did."
Though MSU came out in a rage after the break, three minutes into the second half saw Demon Deacons forward Emily Ruth sealing the Spartans' fate with Wake Forest's third goal.
MSU's defense, rallied by Kyser, would not allow anything else to pass the final 32 minutes though Wake Forest mustered 14 shots on goal for the match to the Spartans' one.
"We had the opportunities, we just didn't capitalize on what we had," Kyser said. "Nothing went our way today."
Dawn Klemish can be reached at klemishd@msu.edu.
