Women's Soccer Home for Two Key Matches
10/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 22, 2009
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Coach Tom | Katelin
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's soccer team will play host to Wisconsin and Minnesota this weekend in a pair of critical Big Ten games. MSU will meet Wisconsin at 3 p.m. on Friday (Oct. 23) and then take on Minnesota at 12 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 25). Sunday's game will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.
The Last Time Out: Playing without leading scorer Laura Heyboer, MSU suffered a 1-0 loss to Northwestern on Sunday in Evanston, Ill.
Wisconsin Series History: The Badgers lead the all-time series with the Spartans, 4-20-2. UW won last year's meeting in Madison, 2-0, while the Spartans last defeated the Badgers in 2007, 2-1, at home. MSU has taken the last three meetings in East Lansing and hasn't lost a regular-season game to the Badgers at home since 2000.
Minnesota Series History: MSU has dominated the series with Minnesota in recent years, as the Spartans have taken eight of the last nine meetings between the schools. Over the nine-game span, Michigan State has outscored Minnesota, 13-4, and posted shutouts in seven of the matches. The Golden Gophers only win over the Spartans since 2000 came in Minneapolis in 2007.
Spartans Go Unbeaten in Non-League Play: For the first time in the program's 24-year history, the Spartans went through their non-conference schedule unbeaten. Michigan State went 7-0-2 against non-league foes, including a 2-0-2 mark away from home.
DeMartin Unbeaten Streak Continues: By tying Michigan in its last appearance at home, MSU extended its home unbeaten streak to 18 games. MSU went 9-0-2 at DeMartin Stadium last season and is 6-0-1 at home so far this season. The previous home-unbeaten streak was 15 games and began Oct. 18, 1988 and spanned 15 games (14-0-1) through the entire `89 campaign.
Defense Continues to Among Conference's Best: As a team, the Spartans have allowed a Big Ten-best eight goals this season and their team goals-against average (0.54) is also the best in the conference and ranks ninth in the nation.
This year's 3-2 win over Penn State marked the first time since Oct. 19, 2008 in a loss at Wisconsin that the Spartans surrendered more than one goal - a streak of 15 consecutive games.
Flietstra Continues to Shine: Sophomore goalkeeper Jill Flietstra has been one of the chief reasons the Spartans have led the Big Ten in defense this season. The Hudsonville native's .887 save percentage leads the Big Ten and ranks 11th-best in the nation while her goals-against average of .54 also leads the conference and is 13th nationally.
Flietstra has three shutout streaks of at least 240 minutes this season as the first spanned 246:24 in three games (Oakland - UCSB) while the second covered action in four games (UCSB - Detroit) and lasted 252:58. Her most recent streak began after giving up a goal at Purdue and extending into the first half of the Northwestern game - a total of 311:31.
Her 12 saves in a 1-0 loss at Indiana earlier this season were the most since Nicole Galas also recorded 12 on Oct. 20, 2006 against Ohio State.
