Junior forward Abby Barker runs the ball away from Miami (Ohio) back Shannon Regan on Nov. 13, 2013, at Ralph Young Field. The Spartans defeated the Redhawks, 3-0, during the first round of the NCAA tournament. Danyelle Morrow/The State News
Big Ten Champions. A 14-10 overall record. An Elite Eight exit in the NCAA Tournament.
By all means, the 2013 season is the most successful season for the field hockey team since 2009, and the best of head coach Helen Knull’s three-year head coaching tenure.
Thankfully, the season didn’t end after nine games. With a 3-6 start to the season, the prospects didn’t look good early on.
The Spartans struggled to finish games, and losing junior forward Abby Barker to injury for several games early in the season didn’t help matters. The team expressed optimism before the Big Ten season started, as they viewed conference play as an opportunity to get back on track.
From the beginning of Big Ten season on, MSU’s fortunes skyrocketed. Barker returned to the lineup and resumed the scoring pace she set during her sophomore year. They began to show greater poise in the second half of games. And most important, the team looked confident in buying into what they were capable of.
They went 4-2 in Big Ten play, and could have gone undefeated in the conference if it weren’t for losing a halftime lead in double-overtime to Penn State and a close loss against Northwestern. They ended the regular season with a win over Iowa to pull to .500, and won three more consecutive games during the surprise Big Ten Tournament run.
A program-defining season didn’t appear to be in the cards at first. But seasons aren’t defined by the beginning, but the end.
It was an impressive transformation, one that almost seemed to happen overnight. Knull credits the team’s self-belief for the strong push.
It’s likely the team underachieved to begin the season. The two wins during the NCAA tournament run were against Miami (OH) and Syracuse, two teams that shut the Spartans out during the regular season.
Syracuse, who was the No. 2 seed, had won 45 straight home games before falling to the Spartans in round one. That’s a heck of an upset win and a program win MSU pulled off.
The 2009 field hockey team was a favorite going into the Big Ten Tournament. The 2013 team? Knull believed her team wouldn’t have qualified for an NCAA Tournament berth without winning the Big Ten Tournament, and even then, her team played a play-in game to move to the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 2013 field hockey team wasn’t supposed to go on a run. They weren’t supposed to become Big Ten Champions. They weren’t supposed to make it to the Elite Eight. But they believed in themselves and beat the odds.
Omari Sankofa is a State News sports reporter. Reach him at osankofa@statenews.com.
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