Ohio State scored both of its goals in the first half, with forward Michael Prosuk scoring just under eight minutes into the game and after the hour long weather delay, with midfielder and leading Buckeye scorer Abdi Mohamed scoring the second goal late in the first half.

The Spartans would try to make a comeback with defenseman John Freitag hitting the back of the net in the 49th minute, cutting the Buckeyes lead to 2-1. But OSU would hold on after Freitag’s goal, and punch their ticket to the semifinal this Friday against the winner of Indiana vs. Penn State.

“You can’t be down two goals in college soccer and think you’re just going to come back,” head coach Damon Rensing said. “We gave them some plays. They got goals off our mistakes and if you do that, you dig yourself a hole, it’s gonna be tough to come back from.”

MSU will now await its fate for the NCAA tournament, which the selection show will take place on Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. on NCAA.com.

“Honestly, this time of year you just have to get back to some basics and doing what’s got us to winning these games,” Rensing said. “We’ll get back to finding what helped us win, and be good from there.”