Spartans Drop Mastodons, 3-1

Sept. 5, 2014

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's soccer team continued its hot play Friday evening in East Lansing, beating the IPFW Mastodons by a score of 3-1. After getting out to an early lead the Spartans turned to their bench, playing a season-high 22 players in the win.

"We did a good job of finishing our chances in the first half and got a little bit of a cushion," said MSU head coach Tom Saxton. "We we're hoping to get as many people rest as we could. We've played three games in six days, and have one of the toughest opponents we've faced all year coming up on Sunday. Hopefully, the rest pays dividends for us against Western Michigan."

The Spartans, now 5-0, got the scoring started early, when in the sixth minute Alexandra Gjonaj played a free kick into the penalty area that was pounced on and volleyed past the IPFW keeper by junior Sarah Kovan. This was the midfielder's first goal, and first career point.

"It was nice to get on the board so quickly," said Saxton. "It kind of set the pace for the rest of the game. You have to credit Sarah [Kovan] who got her foot on it. She works her butt off every day in practice, so it was nice to see her finally get rewarded."

Michigan State extended its lead in the 17th minute, when Allyson Krause played a ball to an overlapping Alexandra Gjonaj, who buried her first of the season bottom-left corner.

MSU padded its lead in the 49th minute when a corner kick off the foot of Paige Wester found center back Mary Katheryn Fiebernitz unmarked in the box, who headed it past the outstretched keeper to put the Spartans up 3-0.

The Mastodons got on the board late, when a cross played into Rachel Good was headed past goalkeeper Gabrielle Gauruder, who came in for Courtney Clem in the 67th minute. Before surrendering the late goal, the Spartans had played 351 minutes of shutout soccer.

"We take pride in those stats," said junior defender Mary Kathryn Fiebernitz. "Our back line has adopted the name the `No-goal-zone', and we're going to try and post as many shutouts as we possibly can. Today we we're close again, but it just shows that we still have a lot to work on."

Michigan State will have a day off Saturday and get right back to work Sunday afternoon, when they take on the 3-0-0 Western Michigan Broncos. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium. The game will also be broadcasted live on the BTN Plus. For more information on BTN Plus visit btn.com.

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Team Stats

Alexandra Gjonaj

Mary Fiebernitz

Sarah Kovan

Paige Wester

Players Mentioned

Courtney Clem

Mary Fiebernitz

Gabrielle Gauruder

Alexandra Gjonaj

Sarah Kovan

Allyson Krause

Paige Wester