Field Hockey Tops No. 14 James Madison

Sept. 12, 2010

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EAST LANSING, Mich.-The No. 6 Michigan State field hockey team extended their season-opening win streak to seven games by downing No. 14 James Madison, 1-0. The Spartans are now 7-0 on the season, including a 4-0 record at home.

For the second straight game, the Spartans went scoreless until the second half. The first half saw some great offensive plays by both squads, and redshirt freshman goaltender Molly Cassidy stepped up with three saves in the first half to keep JMU off the board.

It wasn't until 49:36 that MSU tallied their lone goal of the game. Michigan State lined up to take their second penalty corner of the match. Senior midfielder Sabine van den Assem fed the ball to Kristen Henn, who fired off of a shot that was blocked by a JMU defender. Senior midfielder Angela Pagura was at the right post, gathered the ball and sent it past goaltender Margo Savage for her fourth goal of the season. This was the Spartans seventh consecutive game scoring off of a corner play.

Though MSU prevailed on the scoreboard, JMU edged the Spartans in both shots (13-12) and corners (5-4). Both goaltenders recorded six saves each, and Cassidy tallied her third shutout victory.

"We knew James Madison was going to be a good team, and we are a good team, too. We played our best field hockey so far this season," said head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. "A lot of things that we have been working on the past two weeks and have been exposed to in games, I think we put together today."

The Spartans are on the road for their next two games, traveling to Kent, Ohio to face Kent State at 2 p.m. on Friday and Boston University in a neutral-site game at 1 p.m. on Saturday.