Despite solid goaltending from senior Stephanie Yuhasz that kept the team in the game for much of the contest, the MSU field hockey team was unable to string together any amount of solid play, falling to No. 8 Penn State, 3-1, Saturday at the MSU Field Hockey Complex.
"Stephanie did a great job to keep the Spartans in the game today," MSU head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof said. "A lot of credit to her for helping us get opportunities to maybe turn it around, but as you saw, a goalie cannot do all the work. That's why it's called team sports, bottom line."
Penn State (8-2 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) dominated much of the first half, but the team wasn't able to put a ball past Yuhasz until late in the half, when Shaun Banta scored her 10th goal of the season off a penalty corner.
After halftime, a different Spartans (3-7 overall, 0-1 Big Ten) team came to play, and it showed when senior forward Ashley Smeltzer knocked in a rebound to tie the game at one.
"I definitely saw a lot of action this game," Yuhasz said. "But in the first portion of the second half, I didn't see the ball a lot, and that's because we were playing how we should be playing as a team — going toward the goal, hustling and being aggressive."
But Penn State regained control and scored with less than 19 minutes to play to take a 2-1 lead.
"The second goal, we just absolutely handed to them. It was like, 'Here, take this shot, walk it in,' and you cannot do that at this level if you want to win games," van de Kerkhof said.
The Nittany Lions extended their lead with more than 10 minutes left in the contest when Natalie Blasco deflected a shot into the top corner before Yuhasz even had a chance to react.
MSU's overlying message was the lack of team play.
"We were really good at times when we played together as a team, but we broke down when we didn't support each other," Smeltzer said.
That was a message that Yuhasz echoed.
"We had moments when we played like a team, and at others, we just fell apart," she said. "It was a lack of communication. Our team is really talented individually, but we just have to find that connection to somehow use it.
"Our midfield and offense really need to pick it up with scoring. We have to put it in the goal. You can't save everything."
Van de Kerkhof said some of the players didn't show up ready to play.
"We thought people would be more excited to play," he said. "I think some of them showed up excited to play, and some of them didn't show up ready to play. You have to be excited and ready to play.
