No. 6 Spartans edged by no. 3 Wake Forest

Evanston, Ill. — With only nine total shots in the first half Saturday, the matchup between the No. 6 MSU field hockey team and No. 3 Wake Forest was destined to be tough.

But even as the team outshot the Demon Deacons 17-7 and earned 13 penalty corners in the game, it couldn’t find the back of the cage enough, as Wake Forest scored late to win 2-1.

“I think both teams had opportunities,” head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof said. “I like to believe we had more moments of the better game than Wake had, but it doesn’t result in the score.”

The game was one day after MSU improved its record to 12-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten with a 3-1 win to host team Northwestern. The win extended the team’s win streak to nine games and it was eager to make it 10 with a solid game against the Demon Deacons.

“We all knew that the game between the Spartans and the Demon Deacons would be an exciting one, and that’s what we saw on the field for the full game,” van de Kerkhof said.

The game started off as a defensive battle, with neither side budging for most of the first half. The game was back and forth early, as Wake Forest would mount an attack only to see MSU follow with a drive of its own. Out of the nine total shots in the half, only five of those found the goalkeepers.

MSU increased its press in the closing moments of the first, forcing five penalty corners, though they weren’t able to find the back of the net as the score was 0-0 at the break.

“That resulted for more opportunities for us,” van de Kerkhof said. “I think the last 15 minutes of the first half was all MSU. They could not get out of their own backfield, resulting in several corners as well as circle penetrations by people picking off balls from Wake.”

In the second half, MSU poured on the offense as they scored the first goal of the game 10 minutes in when sophomore midfielder Angela Pagura found senior forward Gwen Riley open in the middle of the circle for a one-timer into the back of the cage.

Unfortunately, that’s all the goals the MSU offense could muster, as Wake Forest goalkeeper Crystal Duffield shut down the Spartans for the rest of the match. When Wake Forest did strike, it scored fast, netting its two goals in only two minutes, the first coming off a penalty corner and the second on a one-timer to midfielder Michelle Kasold.

MSU adjusted its offense from that point to try to take advantage of Wake Forest’s mistakes, van de Kerkhof said.

“We knew that we had to find a way to tie the game up, so we moved people more up field in a hope that we had the opportunity to capitalize on a quick breakaway,” van de Kerkhof said. “We played to win, you always want to play to win, but it didn’t work today.”

Published on Sunday, October 12, 2008