The victory against the Hawkeyes assured MSU the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

“It was a great game (Saturday),” MSU head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof said. “We played our best team defense of the entire year, which was nice because it was a check before postseason play.”

Van de Kerkhof also said that the offense against Iowa was not up to the best of the Spartans’ ability — only taking six shots the entire 70 minutes – but Sunday’s 5-1 victory over Kent State was an entirely different story.

Senior forward Becky Manning scored MSU’s first goal 20 seconds into the contest, off the first play — quickly following it up with a goal just two minutes later.

“It felt really awesome, especially since it is my last regular season game,” said Manning, who hasn’t played the three previous weeks due to a body injury. “(Iowa) was my first game back, and I was a little shaky. I really wanted to have a good game (Sunday) so I just focused on getting it to the goal and it worked.”

MSU took 19 shots in Sunday’s matchup against the Golden Flashes. The number could have easily been larger had the team not substituted players as often, said van de Kerkhof.

“When you sub as much as we did, to give everyone a chance to play, you bring down the level of play,” he said. “The second half goals were a little different than those in the first. We wanted to play more possession and swing the ball around in the midfield and with that you take away some of your offensive plays.”

Manning went on to score the Spartans’ fifth goal to complete her hat trick.

“(Becky) is very eager and will be the first player to break whatever she has to break or suffer wounds in order to score goals,” van de Kerkhof said. “I’m excited that Becky had a chance to come back (the way she did) and prove to herself that she is a great forward.”

With the regular season completed, the Spartans are preparing for the Big Ten Tournament, which starts Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.

“Each game is now dead or alive,” van de Kerkhof said. “You cannot have any, or too many, bad moments. Pretty much the players have everything in their control, they just have to become mentally stronger to make sure that they execute Spartan hockey.

“If we do that we’ll be fine. If not, we’ll be in trouble.”