No. 8 Field Hockey Shuts Out Central Michigan, 4-0

Sept. 10, 2002

The No. 8 Michigan State field hockey team defeated Central Michigan, 4-0, for its fourth straight win on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Four different Spartans scored for MSU and six players scored at least a point in the victory. This was the Spartans' third shutout of the season and the second consecutive game in which MSU kept an opponent off of the scoreboard.

Michigan State tallied three goals in the first half of play. Junior Theresa Pusateri (Homewood, Ill.) scored the game's opening goal at the 17:42 mark with an unassisted shot for her first goal on the young season. Freshman Michelle Huynh-Ba (Hockessin, Del.) scored her second goal in three games off of a Julia Adams (Vancouver, British Columbia) pass. Junior Sophie Rosmalen (Oss, Netherlands) sank her second strike of the season with the help of Alexandra Kyser (Columbus, Ohio) to put the Spartans up 3-0 at the half.

With Adams' second assist of the day, senior Cynthia Martin (Vancouver, British Columbia) added her first goal of the season in the 65th minute to close the game with a 4-0 Spartan advantage.

Goal-keepers Christina Kirkaldy (Afton, N.Y.) and Lauren Hess (Los Angeles, Calif.) combined to make nine saves on the day. Kirkaldy played the opening half and stopped both of the Chippewas' shots. Hess accounted for seven stops in the second half, when CMU attempted to make an attack. The Spartans' outshot the Chippewas 22-11, including an 11-2 advantage in the opening half. MSU also held a 9-3 lead in penalty corners.

With the victory, the Spartans move to 4-1 on the season, while the Chippewas fall to 3-2.

The Spartans travel to Syracuse, N.Y., on Friday, Sept. 13, to take on Syracuse in the Big East/Big Ten Challenge. MSU will represent the Big Ten Conference at Coyne Field, along with Indiana and No.16 Ohio State. Rutgers and Villanova will join host school Syracuse as the Big East Conference's representatives. Michigan State's match-up with Syracuse will conclude the first day of play at 8 p.m.

Scoring Summary

    1   2   FinalMSU 3   1   4CMU 0   0   0

Team    Goal (Assist)               Period  TimeMSU Theresa Pusateri (unassisted)     1   17:42MSU Michelle Huynh-Ba (Julia Adams)      1   21:42MSU Sophie Rosmalen (Alexandra Kyser) 1   27:58MSU Cynthia Martin (Julia Adams)       2   64:01