Field hockey head coach Michele Madison was able to reach her 200th win this past weekend, winning all three games of the Spartans' California road trip. The Spartans knocked off Cal, Pacific and Stanford.
Madison spoke highly of the three-game, West Coast sweep.
"It was the first time we've done that I can remember," Madison said. "I'm proud of their effort."
In the final game of the road trip, the Spartans used scoring from three different players to defeat Stanford 3-0.
Sophomores back Charlotte van der Laag and sophomore forward Becky Manning scored for the Spartans in the first half.
In the second half, senior back Breanna Harpstead added the final goal to give the Spartans a 3-0 lead.
Madison said a key to the win was the ability to move the ball and involve everyone.
"It's really important to spread the ball around," she said. "Everyone has to chip in, and so far that's what everyone has been doing."
On Saturday, the second game of the West Coast swing, the Spartans were able to shut out Pacific, 2-0.
Junior forward Ashley Pernicano led off with a goal at the 19:01 mark. The Spartans held that 1-0 lead until freshman back Inge Kaars Sijpestijn gave them a 2-0 lead a little more than seven minutes into the second half.
Madison felt the key to this win was the stingy defense of the Spartans.
"Beck Bolin had the game of her Spartan career," she said. "Our defense did a good job against their speedy forwards."
Senior goalie Christina Kirkaldy didn't see much action, facing only four shots for the game.
In their first game of the trip on Friday, the Spartans fell in an early 1-0 hole when Cal's sophomore Valentina Godfrid scored at the 12:37 mark. The Spartans reached the scoreboard when senior forward Michelle Huynh-Ba scored her first of two goals in the game on an assist from Manning at the 19:30 mark.
The Spartans took the lead just before half on a goal by freshman Kaars Sijpestijn, assisted by Miller at the 32:48 mark.
In the second half, the Spartans were able to get on the board just more than two minutes into the half when Huynh-Ba scored her second goal of the game and the scoring was capped off with Manning scoring at the 67:44 mark.
"We had a different defense, and it worked better against their spread attack," Madison said. "We forced them to go through us."
The Spartans will be back in action on at 3 p.m. Friday against James Madison in East Lansing.
