Women's Soccer Hosts Michigan on Sunday
10/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 9, 2009
Listen to Spartan Sports Podcasts
Coach Tom | Lauren | Jill
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's soccer team will host rival Michigan on Sunday (Oct. 11) at 1 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium. The Spartans enter Sunday's game with a school record 17-game home unbeaten streak.
The Last Time Out: MSU played a pair of road games last weekend at Indiana (Oct. 2), where they fell 1-0 on a last minute goal, and then tied No. 12 Purdue, 1-1, on Sunday (Oct. 4). Hannah Peterson scored her first goal of the season in Sunday's game.
Series History: The Spartans and Wolverines enter Sunday's game with the all-time series tied at 9-9-5. It's no surprise the series is tied as in the last 10 games between the two schools, each has won three games and there have been four draws. The last win in the series came in 2006 when MSU won, 1-0, in East Lansing. Michigan last defeated the Spartans, 2-1, in 2003 in Ann Arbor.
Record Start: The Spartans' 7-0-2 start matched their longest unbeaten streak to start a season since the program's inaugural year, 1986, when the Green and White began 8-0-1. MSU started in similar fashion last season - winning 10 of their first 11 games.
DeMartin Unbeaten Streak Continues: Michigan State extended its program-record home-winning streak to 17 games with its thrilling, 3-2, overtime-win over Penn State on Sept. 27. MSU went 9-0-2 at DeMartin Stadium last season and is 6-0 at home so far this season. The previous home-unbeaten streak was 15 games and began Oct. 18, 1988, with a 1-0 win over Kalamazoo College and spanned 15 games (14-0-1) through the entire `89 campaign.
Heyboer & Hill Pace Offense: The tandem of senior Lauren Hill and sophomore Laura Heyboer continue to lead the Spartan offense this season and rank near the top of the conference in scoring. Heyboer enters the weekend second in the Big Ten with 19 points and third in goals (seven). Hill is third in the conference in points (18) and second in goals (eight).
Stingy Defense Among Conference's Best: As a team, the Spartans have allowed just seven goals this season and their team goals-against average (0.60) is good for second in the conference. Goalkeeper Jill Flietstra leads the Big Ten save percentage at .881. Flietstra has two shutout streaks of at least 240 minutes this season as the first spanned 246:24 in three games (Oakland - UCSB) and the second covered action in four games (UCSB - Detroit) and lasted 252:58.
