“We executed our game plan very well in the first half,” he said. “I think we were the better team if you look at possession, but we struggled finishing it up in the attacking circle.”

The Spartans’ only goal came from senior forward Jantine Steinmetz at the end of the second half, which brought the score to a 1-1 tie. Both of U-M’s goals came from forward Zara Saydjari.

MSU had three penalty corners on the game, compared to the Wolverines’ one, and also led in shots 10-4. Despite these stats, the Spartans were unable to recover after U-M got a 2-1 lead.

The Wolverines got on the board first when Saydjari took a shot off a rebound, and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Molly Cassidy was unable to stop it. The unassisted goal was scored at 17:13.

Despite having two promising penalty corners in the first half, MSU was unable to put the ball in the net, and the two teams continued up and down the field with scoreless play.

However, with less than two minutes remaining in the first half, Steinmetz caught a break toward the Wolverine goalkeeper Haley Jones. In the middle of Steinmetz’s drive, midfielder Meredith Way came from behind and committed a foul against the Spartans, which resulted in a penalty stroke.

Alone in front of the Wolverines’ cage, Steinmetz blasted the ball to the top, back corner to tie the score at 1.

“If you look at today and compare it to last week, I think we took a huge step forward with really creating quality opportunities, so we’re one step closer to actually put it in,” Steinmetz said.

Less than 30 seconds after the goal, sophomore midfielder Kristen Henn received a pass in front of the net for a scoring opportunity that would have given the Spartans the lead, but she was unable to get the ball in.

“Tying up the game just before halftime is a great confidence booster,” van de Kerkhof said. “We made just a few changes at halftime that should have helped us in the second half, but I don’t think we had a chance to see some of those come out.”

The rivals opened the second half with an uneventful first 15 minutes until Saydjari put in her second goal of the game.

With a crowd of people surrounding the Spartan goal, Saydjari managed to push the ball past Cassidy to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead at 49:24.

“In the second half, I think we were just too laid-back,” Steinmetz said. “I think we thought we were going to be fine, but they were very physical, and we just let ourselves down in the second half.”

After having such a strong influence on MSU’s attack, Steinmetz went down after taking a hard hit from the Wolverines and did not return for the rest of the game.

“Michigan is a good team, and they were very physical today,” van de Kerkhof said. “I think we did well from time to time, but you have to play the physical game with your opponents. We had a lot of good moments and good plays to look back on.”

The lost was the Spartans first conference lost since 2008, after MSU went undefeated in conference play last season.

“Overall, it wasn’t the best our team has played, but we did play together as a team and we did work really hard,” sophomore midfielder Adelle Lever said. “It just didn’t result the way we wanted it to.”