Head coach Tom Saxton said the goal they gave up in the first half wasn’t a good one, but he is proud of how the team responded.

“It was a pretty good back-and-forth Big Ten game, and in the first half, somebody missed an assignment,” Saxton said. “They basically tried to double (team) when they shouldn’t have and (Wisconsin) popped the ball back and left a kid wide open on the 18 and she just put it in, so we weren’t happy with the kind of goal we gave up, but we came back and started playing again and created out fair share of chances.”

Saxton said in the second half, the Spartans played much better, especially in the back line.

“We came out and settled down in the second half and I thought we’re doing very well,” he said. “Then, all of a sudden, we got impatient and the game loosened up and they put some pressure on us.”

As the game was winding down, Saxton said MSU had a corner kick that from his angle, went into the net, but was disallowed.

“We had a corner with the clock winding down, we moved everybody up and it looked like it went across the line, but it wasn’t awarded,” Saxton said. “That’s out of our control I guess, but I was pleased that out team fought and put ourselves in that position. I think we can hang with anybody in the conference, and that feeling was reinforced tonight.”

The next game for the Spartans is at 3 p.m. on Sunday in St. Paul, Minn. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

“You just kind of let this one work it’s way out of your head and come back tomorrow morning and fly over to Minnesota, and we’ll go to training, and at that point we’ve got to make sure everything’s right psychologically,” Saxton said. “Like Wisconsin, (Minnesota) will present us with a very speedy frontrunner.”