No. 8 Spartans Defeat Maine, 2-1

Sept. 27, 2009

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Rolf | Floor

East Lansing, Mich. - Michigan State used two second half goals, including a strike from senior Floor Rijpma (Bunnik, Netherlands) with 1:48 remaining, to defeat the Maine Black Bears, 2-1 Sunday afternoon at Ralph Young Field.

"In the end our players took care of business and I'd like to complement them on that," said head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. "Looking back it was an excellent weekend with us going 2-0."

The Spartans fell behind early when Maine's Kelly Newton deflected a shot from teammate Kallie Aldus into the back of the cage giving the Black Bears a 1-0 advantage just under four minutes into the match. MSU and Maine played back and forth hockey for the remainder of the half but the Black Bears were able to keep their 1-0 lead due largely to solid play from goalie Brittany Fleck.

Michigan State started the second half strong when freshman Manouk Vernij (Bleiswijk, Netherlands) scored off a penalty corner less than 10 minutes into the second frame. Vernij's goal was setup by beautiful passes from junior Joelle van Ierland (Den Dolder, Netherlands) and sophomore Chantae Miller (East Amherst, N.Y.). The Spartans had an opportunity to take the lead minutes later but Maine's Ellen Andrews made a defensive save to deny Rijpma an easy goal. However, the Black Bears couldn't keep Rijpma off the scoreboard for long as she took a pass from Vernij and fired it into the back of the cage giving the Spartans a 2-1 lead with under two minutes remaining in the game. The Spartans were able to control possession for the final two minutes and hold on for the victory to improve their record to 7-3.

Following their thrilling victory, the Spartans played host to over 70 youth field hockey players for their 2009 Spartan Play Day. The Play Day, which was put on by van de Kerkhof and his staff, provided young field hockey athletes an opportunity to learn new skills, drills, meet the Spartans and have fun.