“I think a lot of us have played with the guys there, whether it be club or summer ball or whatever it is,” Cope said. “So, we have a good idea of what we’re up against. We haven’t seen them as a unit, which will be something new, but like I said we’re up to it and looking forward to a good game.”

Boasting a 9-4-0 record on the season, Oakland is 6-0 at home and ranks second in the nation for total points.

Some of that is due to Oakland’s Kyle Bethel, who leads the nation in total assists and assists per match, and also ranks 12th in total points.

“They score a lot of goals,” head coach Damon Rensing said. “They have one of the top scorers in the country playing for them, Kyle Bethel. I expect an energetic crowd at their place, I expect a typical in-state rivalry-type game.”

Sophomore defender Ryan Keener said it’s hard to pinpoint where the team’s struggles lie, but he said he wants to see some improvements in the defense.

“I think we need to get back to basics as far as defense,” Keener said. “We’ve given up some goals the past few games and as a defender I’m not happy about that. If we can hold it at 0-0 and play a good defensive game then we’ll get more rhythm offensively. It starts at defense for us and then I think the offensive piece will come.”

MSU is coming off a 2-1 loss to Big Ten opponent Penn State.

Leading up to that game, the Spartans were 2-0 in the two games prior to Penn State, taking Ohio State 2-1 and Detroit 1-0.

Rensing said although Oakland has such a strong offense, his team needs to focus on its game, not Oakland’s, to get them a win.

“I think we’ll have to be good on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Certainly you have to defend, but if you worry too much about the other team, then you don’t create enough offense for yourself. I think we have a good back line, goalkeeping’s been solid the past couple of games, I like our midfield. I feel good about where we’re at, so hopefully we can continue to generate some good chances and keep them off the scoreboard.”

Keener agreed the team needs to stick to what it’s best at, and that’s how it will be triumphant over Oakland Wednesday.

“I think it’s just doing what we do well,” he said. “We’ve been worrying sometimes too much about how we should adapt to the teams. I think we should just worry about (us). If we do that, we’ll beat a lot of teams who play well.”