The Spartans defeated Maryland 1-0 Sept. 19, and the team also defeated Bowling Green State 1-0 on Sept. 24 and tied Rutgers 0-0 on Sept. 28

Winning two out of three games in 10 days is no easy task, but head coach Damon Rensing believes that the team had its chances to beat Rutgers on Sunday.

“We played three games in the last (10) days, Friday at Maryland, Wednesday at Bowling Green, and then Sunday here at home, and we got two wins and a tie,” Rensing said. “When you get the first two wins you want to get greedy and get a win here at home, certainly we played well enough to do it ...we had some open looks, too. I thought that would normally go in, they literally bounced over the goal on two of them.”

With no mid-week games this week, the team can get some extra rest heading into the Oct. 4 game vs. Ohio State.

“I think the first thing (going forward) is to rest, I think that’s going to be big for the next day or so, to really get off our feet ... and then (we have to) really get back to it because we’re not happy with this tie,” junior goalkeeper Zach Bennett said after the game on Sunday.

Keeping with the theme of welcoming rest, senior defender Ryan Keener believes the rest will give the team a chance to get healthy.

“Thankfully we’ve got no midweek games so we get a little bit of rest. (We’ll) try to get some guys healthy — it gets to be a grind here. I think we’re about almost halfway through,” Keener said.

Despite the four points and two shutouts the team has earned in its last two games, the players believe there are still improvements to be made.

“Honestly, in these past couple games ... I think we’ve given too much up and I want to improve on that,” Keener said. “We got shutouts and at the end of the day that’s good, but I want to do it a little more convincingly going forward. I think we can still improve on some things.”

To further echo the thoughts of the team, junior midfielder Jason Stacy also chimed in on the team’s ability to get some extra rest this week.

“We got a really solid week off, which we need. We’re about halfway through the season,” Stacy said. “We’ve got a good stretch of games coming up, so it’s going to be really crucial this next week, recovery wise, for our legs and mentally to prepare.”