MSU field hockey (8-6, 3-3 Big Ten) had a nice return to Ralph Young Field on Friday afternoon after playing nine of their previous eleven games on the road. The Spartans welcomed the No. 12 Iowa Hawkeyes (9-5, 3-3 Big Ten) into East Lansing in a rematch of the 2013 Big Ten Championship. After taking an early lead, MSU was able to shut down the Hawkeye attack and secure a much-needed 2-0 victory.
Sophomore midfielder Kristin Matula and senior back Alli Helwig scored goals for MSU, while redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Sierra Patton made all ten of her saves in the second half for her first career shutout.
“Having my defense back there helped out a lot,” Patton said of her performance. “Their man-marking was on point today … I got to take the straight shot instead of worrying about whether or not they were going to get a deflection.”
MSU came out looking like a desperate and determined team against the Hawkeyes. With the defense noticeably better and passes looking more crisp, head coach Helen Knull had nothing but praise for the way her team came out.
“We worked on it every day this week in practice,” Knull said. “We worked on our interception lines and our first touch. We worked on being proactive, and that’s what we played today.”
The first goal of the game came in the 13th minute after a botched penalty corner. Senior back Michelle Graham fired a cross that found Matula at the opposite post, who made no mistake in scoring.
“I was lucky enough that it popped right over an Iowa stick and got a touch on it,” Matula said of her second goal on the year.
MSU’s stout defense was the story for the remainder of the first half, as the Hawkeyes were only able to generate two shots in the half. The Spartans found themselves in a unique place, having allowed the game’s first goal in their previous ten games this year.
“The fact that we were already up, we weren’t playing so as panicked and reactive to them,” Knull said. “So we could kind of set the tone a little bit.”
Entering the second half with a 1-0 lead and 6-2 edge in shots, MSU used more of a defensive approach throughout the second half.
After not being tested in the first half, Patton was called upon in a big way in the second half. Iowa was afforded seven penalty corners in the second half alone, and outshot the Spartans 16-3. Patton was huge in not letting the Hawkeyes tie the game and MSU awarded her with an insurance goal in the 61st minute.
MSU was afforded a penalty stroke, and Helwig faked out the goalie to score her fourth goal of the season, and second off a penalty stroke.
“Going into Sunday’s game against Northwestern, we’ve got to play the same way,” Knull said. “We cannot play reactive, we’ve got to play proactive … Overall, I think we cleaned things up. I think we had a gut check last weekend and I’m proud of how we rebounded today.”
MSU will look to climb even higher in the Big Ten standings on Sunday when they take on No. 9 Northwestern at 12 p.m. at Ralph Young Field.
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