Women's Soccer Victorious In Big Ten Home Opener

Sept. 26, 2003

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan State women's soccer team defeated Minnesota, 4-2, in a conference match on Friday (Sept. 26) at Old College Field. With the win, MSU improved to 6-2 (2-1Big Ten) on the season as Minnesota fell to 4-3-1 (1-2) with the loss.

Michigan State's Tiffany Laskowski (Sr., Troy, Mich.) scored her third goal of the season, with a header, in the second minute of the first half with assists from Adrienne Treado (Jr., Troy, Mich.) and Nina Mastracci (So., Troy, Mich.). Laskowski scored again in the 28th minute with an assist from Jenee Witherspoon (Fr., Midland, Mich.). MSU's third goal was scored by forward Trisha Kenny (Sr., Saginaw, Mich.) with an assist from Abby Shepherd (Jr., Milford, Mich.). The fourth goal was scored by Shepherd with assists from Treado and Kenny.

The Golden Gophers managed to break through the Spartans' strong defense in the second half with Annie Carr scoring in the 70th minute and Andrea Neuman scoring at 82:41. This is the third time this season that MSU has scored at least four goals in a match. Previously, the Spartans obtained a 4-0 victory over Detroit on Sept. 7 and defeated Western Michigan, 5-1, on Sept. 14.

MSU outshot Minnesota,18-6, and Spartan goalkeeper Stacy Heller (Sr., Madison, Wis.) finished the game with three saves.

"The challenge this week was to respond to the set back against Illinois with our best performance," stated MSU head coach Tom Saxton. "We showed a little inconsistency at the end, but we certainly came out with all 11 players on the field focused and crisp. I think this was our best offensive performance of the year. Tiffany Laskowski is such a great leader and she preached the same things I did all week about coming out and taking care of our home field advantage."

MSU will return to action on Sunday (Sept. 28) when it hosts Wisconsin at 12 p.m. at Old College Field.

Game SummaryTeam        1st 2nd TotalMinnesota   0   2   2Michigan State  3   1   4
Scoring Summary1.) 1:24  MSU   Tiffany Laskowski (Treado/Mastracci)2.) 27:21 MSU   Tiffany Laskowski (Witherspoon)3.) 33:54 MSU   Trisha Kenny (Shepherd)4.) 53:15 MSU   Abby Shepherd (Kenny/Treado)5.) 69:10 UMN   Annie Carr (Dellaria)6.) 82:41 UMN   Andrea Neuman (McMahon)
Shot AttemptsTeam        1st 2nd TotalMinnesota   3   3   6Michigan State  11  7   18
Goalkeeper SavesKopietz (UMN)   2Prall (UMN) 1Heller (MSU)    3