In her first two years, Kovan has been a key piece to the Spartans, starting 24 of the 30 games she’s played in, and could be a top midfielder in the Big Ten, head coach Tom Saxton said.

Jeff Kovan graduated from MSU in 1983 and went to medical school in East Lansing as well, and the love of being a Spartan rubbed off on his daughter.

“I came in during the time period of Mateen Cleaves and that group,” Sarah Kovan said. “Being in the training room with my dad, and he’s working on them and got to actually meet them. It’s cool looking back now when they’ve become these big figures for MSU.”

MSU wasn’t always a lock for Sarah Kovan. During high school, she said she was looking at other Big Ten schools, as well as schools on the East coast.

In the end, however, the school she grew up admiring eventually came out on top as she signed to play at MSU.

“At first, I wanted to get away because you want that college experience to be away from home,” Sarah Kovan said. “I know my grandma lives close and it’s her favorite thing to come to our games each weekend, so it’s really nice.”

“The culture and Tom (Saxton), Tammy (Farnum) and Stacy (Heller) have a really good mentality about soccer, and academics and family are also very important. It’s not just the sport of soccer that’s important, and that was really important to me and you can feel that when you’re out here.”

With Jeff Kovan working with many sports teams at MSU the last 20 years, Sarah Kovan had the opportunity to go to many of the youth soccer camps hosted by MSU soccer.

“Sarah started probably coming to some of our youth clinics and actually played on clubs coach Stacy Heller worked with,” Saxton said. “We knew she was a very talented and hard working player as far back as middle school and to watch her grow into a high school and club player, you could tell she would be something special. She has an opportunity to be one of the best midfielders in the Big Ten, if not next year, certainly, before her career ends.”

Over the years, Jeff Kovan had the opportunity to befriend many coaches, including Saxton, which made him more comfortable to let his daughter to attend MSU.

Jeff Kovan said it’s nice to see Sarah at his alma mater, but said he let her make her own college choice, like his other daughter Brianna, who attends Michigan. The Kovan’s joke about the rivalry, but it’s not serious. When it comes to women’s soccer, MSU is the family’s top team.

“For me, it was exciting that she was going to a Big Ten university to play soccer,” Jeff Kovan said. “It was exciting because she was going to play for coaches I thought were quality people, that would be good role models and mentors for her. Lastly, it was wonderful because I could attend every home game, so it wasn’t (about) not being able to see her play anymore, which would’ve been really difficult after watching her since she was in first grade. All those things made it special and unique.”