Senior midfielder Becky Stiles , third on the team in points, is heading home this weekend.
A native of Medford, N.J., Stiles will have plenty of her own supporters this weekend as field hockey prepares to take on Rutgers and Monmouth on the road.
“It’s exciting,” Stiles said of her homecoming. “I have some family and friends that said they’re coming. But yeah, just focusing on the game and playing my heart out.”
After losing against Big Ten newcomer Maryland last weekend, No. 20 MSU field hockey (5-4 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) will welcome Rutgers into the Big Ten. Coming in with two straight conference losses, MSU will look to rebound with two straight wins.
With all the Spartans previous losses only coming by one goal, head coach Helen Knull could always take some type of positive away from each game. However, against Maryland on Sunday, MSU was down 4-0 late in the second half and only scored two goals when their fate was already sealed.
Granted, the Terrapins are the No. 2-ranked team in the country and are coming off a Final Four appearance last year. However, Knull won’t let her team use that as an excuse.
“It doesn’t matter who our opponent is,” Knull said. “It’s just another jersey...the positive was that we controlled the tempo. We controlled the game. The drawback being we didn’t get the win. The Maryland game, I think, was a good lesson for us. Playing a top four team that dominated us through 55 minutes of the game, we’ve got to find a way to play better. We’ve got to find a way to clean up our basic skills, but they’re teams we’re going to see again in the Big Ten Tournament.”
Though MSU got two big tests out of its way last weekend, the schedule does not get any easier. Six of the nine Big Ten teams are still ranked, and the Spartans have a handful of challenging non-conference games left to deal with as well.
On the offensive side of the field, the Spartans have cooled down recently after catching some momentum early in the season. The Spartans are averaging one goal per game in losses, compared to 4.6 goals per game in wins.
“Our basic skills, just passing and receiving under pressure, struggled,” Knull said. “There’s a couple things we got to clean up in terms of our ability to pass and follow the play.”
While the game against Penn State was more evenly played, the Terrapins completely shut down the Spartans’ attack for nearly the entire game. With most of the goals this season coming from senior forwards Abby Barker and Allie Ahern , MSU could use more offensive contributions from the entire roster.
Barker and Ahern have scored 15 of MSU’s 27 goals this season, accounting for 56 percent of the offense.
MSU opens up the weekend on Friday against Rutgers at 3 p.m. and follow it up on Saturday against Monmouth at 1 p.m.
