No. 20 MSU field hockey (7-4, 2-2 Big Ten) will wrap up its four-game road trip this weekend in Indiana with two more games. On Saturday, the Spartans will take on the No. 18 Indiana Hoosiers (8-3, 0-3 Big Ten) and follow it up with a game against Ball State (3-7) on Sunday.
MSU faced both teams last year, beating the Hoosiers by a score of 4-3 and running all over Ball State 8-0. Even though Indiana has lost their first three conference games, they are coming off an impressive 3-2 win over Duke, a team that MSU lost 2-1 to in overtime early in the season.
Coming off of a two-win weekend, head coach Helen Knull is looking for her players to put forth a consistent effort from whistle-to-whistle.
“Last weekend, we played decent halves and decent spells, but we didn’t play a full game,” Knull said. “We need to start putting together seventy minutes of hockey, just consistent hockey from everybody.”
The Spartans have had great moments in every game this year, including the 4-2 loss to Maryland, but rarely have those moments come in the opening minutes. There’s been talk all season out of the locker room about how MSU needs to set their pace from the start of the game. While that strategy hasn’t gone as planned, there is still a resounding confidence that it is right around the corner.
“A big goal for us starting this weekend is to get the ball in the back of the net before the other team and set our pace, and not go off of how the other team is playing,” senior forward Abby Barker said. “We’ve had glimpses of greatness and I think that the whole team, we just want to show everyone that we can play for seventy minutes and get some big wins in the latter part of our season.”
The lack of stability in MSU’s play on a game-to-game basis seems to be a mentality issue. With saying that, the Spartans are aware of the issue and Knull’s message is clearly getting through.
“The main thing we struggle with is consistency,” redshirt sophomore midfield Adrea Donaldson said. “Every game it’s up, down, up, down and ... We’ve had these clicks and we’re good to go and we have the game in our hands and then we kind of let it go.
“We just need the one click of consistency where we have the game and keep it the whole game.”
Looking ahead, MSU currently sits sixth out of nine teams in the Big Ten. With eight teams advancing to the conference tournament, the Spartans are in a safe place, but would love to jump higher in the standings for confidence and seeding purposes.
“There’s so much to play for still remaining in the season,” Knull said. “Talking to the seniors this week, talking to the underclassmen, our destiny is in our hands and every game matters.”
MSU will play IU at 1 p.m. on Saturday and BSU at 1 p.m. on Sunday as they look to build their consistency.
