Spartans Capture Champions Invitational Title

Aug. 26, 2007

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State field hockey team has started the season 2-0 after capturing the Champions Invitational Tournament title with a thrilling 3-2 win over the Ohio Bobcats in overtime.

The No. 19 Spartans opened the scoring by executing a beautiful two-on-one break at 11:14. Freshman Amanda Huck sent the final pass across to Gwen Riley, who finished the goal for the early 1-0 advantage. The Bobcats evened the score at 16:35 as Torrie Albini took a shot that hit the goal post and then followed up her own rebound for Ohio's first goal.

The game went to the half even at 1-1 despite the Bobcats 9-3 advantage in shots and 5-1 lead in corners.

"We wanted to carry our strong play in the second half yesterday (in a 4-1 win over Louisville) into the beginning of today's game," said Spartans head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. "We wanted to start out strong but we didn't."

The Spartans flipped the game around in the second half by outshooting the Bobcats 9-3 and the team took a 2-1 lead in the 58th minute. The top returning Michigan State scorer from last season, sophomore Floor Rijpma, tallied her first goal of the season in putting the Spartans up for the first time in the game.

Ohio fought back to make it a 2-2 game at 61:10 as Katelyn Shelley struck for the Bobcats, a goal that sent the game to overtime.

The Spartans had all three shots and two corners in the extra frame, and the second corner was the catalyst for the team's game-winning goal. Senior Becky Manning sent the ball from the corner into play, causing a scramble in front and a rebound. It was then Manning who found the loose ball to the right of the goalkeeper and slammed it home for the 3-2 win.

"We saw how they defended our first corner in the overtime," said van de Kerfhof. "From that, we were able to set up our own play and execute it on the winning goal."

Elissa Unger of Michigan State and Jessie Martin of Ohio each made five saves in goal for their teams.

In the other game of the day, No. 4 Duke defeated No. 14 Louisville with a 2-0 shutout win. Sophomore forward Amie Survilla flipped a ball into the upper left corner of the goal at 18:04 to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead. Brooke Patterson then set up Susan Ferger for a second half tally at 55:45.

Duke and Ohio each finished the tournament with a 1-1 record, while Louisville went 0-2 on the weekend. Michigan State will take an undefeated record into Friday's home game with Miami (OH), starting at 3 p.m.