Field Hockey Falls to Michigan

Oct. 1, 2010

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The No. 6 Michigan State field hockey team suffered its first Big Ten Conference loss of the season on Friday, falling to No. 19 Michigan, 2-1, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The loss is MSU's second of the season and puts the squad at 9-2, 1-1 in the Big Ten.

The Wolverines got the Big Ten conference match started with a goal from Zara Saydjari at 17:13. The tally came off Michigan's lone penalty corner of the game and was unassisted.

Senior Jantine Steinmetz tied it up for the Spartans right before halftime at 33:24 when she was able to take advantage of a penalty stroke. This was the Spartans' first penalty stroke attempt and goal of the season. This stood as Steinmetz's sixth goal of the season.

Play battled back and forth for the beginning of the second half. Saydjari scored her second goal of the game at 49:24 when she connected on a pass from Bryn Bain for the eventual game-winner. MSU outshot Michigan,10-4, and had a total of three penalty corners. Freshman goaltender Molly Cassidy walked away with one save in the team's second loss of the season.

"Looking back, we played a great first half as we executed our game plan and played as a team," said head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. "Midway the second half, we had some trouble staying poised and playing our hockey which led to Michigan's second goal. After going down 2-1, we worked hard to get ourselves back in the game, but our efforts fell short. We are now looking forward to improving from today's performance for our upcoming game against Ohio."

The Spartans return to action on Sunday when they host non-conference opponent Ohio at 1 p.m. in East Lansing.