From right, MSU Junior forward Olivia Stander completes for procession with Oakland midfielder Nicole DeLuca. Stander shoots the single goal of the game and helps MSU to advance over Oakland for 1-0 at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field Thursday evening. Justin Wan/The State News
Tom Saxton doesn’t underestimate the importance of momentum.
Coming off a weekend sweep at the Michigan Invitational in Ann Arbor, the MSU women’s soccer team (3-1-0) kept the momentum rolling in its second home matchup of the year with a 1-0 victory against in-state rival Oakland. The Spartans took advantage of a struggling Oakland squad and had little trouble dictating the pace of play for most of the afternoon at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field.
“We got the result, and they did a great job down the stretch doing the right things,” Saxton said.
“Oakland is a very tough game for us because of the in-state rivalry. (Oakland head coach Nick O’Shea) is a great coach, and they’re a very difficult, very unique system. I thought our players handled it well, and we got the result.”
The Spartans struck quickly in the 8th minute as junior forward Olivia Stander chipped in a goal on the first shot of the game with an assist by senior forward Laura Heyboer.
With her second goal of the season, Stander gave her team the early boost it needed to carry a one-goal lead into halftime.
Although Heyboer — who became the 100-point scorer in the history of the program in August — failed to score, she fired off two shots and increased her MSU all-time scoring record with the assist to Stander. As a team, the Spartans tallied 13 shots on the afternoon and limited Oakland to just five in 90 minutes of play.
“They have kind of a difficult formation to defend because they bring their center forward back in the midfield,” Stander said. “We really worked on that at practice. The ability of us to control their midfield really helped with us being able to break them down in the back and that led to our goal.”
On the other side, Oakland came into the game winless after suffering early-season losses against Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan. The Golden Grizzlies had trouble getting past the improving Spartan backline led by defenders junior Kelsey Kassab and sophomore Kelsey Mullen and couldn’t get anything past senior goalkeeper Jill Flietstra.
With her third shutout of the season and the 22nd of her career, Flietstra now moves into a tie for the MSU all-time shutouts record, held by current assistant coach Stacy Heller (2000-03).
“It’s great to be in the record books but, (shutouts aren’t) — in my opinion — an individual award,” Flietstra said.
“As our team was coming off, I was saying, ‘Thank you,’ to them for helping me get there but to pass my own coach. It’s a great feature. She’s cheering for me and proud of me. I give her a lot of credit for getting me there.”
The Spartans’ will look to continue their run in their next matchup at 1 p.m. Sunday against Akron in Ohio before returning home for a three-game homestand, starting with Bowling Green on Sept. 9.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
