Women's Soccer Battles Buckeyes in Regular Season Finale
10/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
With one game left in the regular season, the Michigan State women's soccer team is fully aware of the importance Wednesday's game on the road in Columbus holds in regards to the post season. With 14 points apiece and tied for seventh place in the conference with Ohio State, the Spartans and Buckeyes will be fighting for a spot in the top eight in the Big Ten regular season standings and a berth in the conference tournament.
Michigan State head coach Tom Saxton said that after re-watching the film of Sunday's 3-1 win against Indiana, he felt good about his team's performance.
"I felt the penalties were well deserved," Saxton said. "I felt the pressure we put on them that resulted in the third goal was well deserved. I was generally pleased. We could still be better at capitalizing, but we were better with our final third entries. I think Jamie's [Cheslik] on fire and setting the tone for our attack."
When comparing performances this season against common opponents, MSU has beaten higher-ranked opponents in Michigan and Minnesota while the Buckeyes collected a win against Maryland and tied this year's Big Ten regular champion Wisconsin. Both teams lost to Rutgers and collected wins against Iowa and Indiana.
While the Spartans only have two wins in Columbus, the all-time record with Ohio State is a narrower 10-11 margin, with the chance to pull even with the Buckeyes on Wednesday. Last year MSU outlasted OSU in a 2-1 overtime thriller win at DeMartin Stadium thanks to a goal by senior Allyson Krause and assist by sophomore Jamie Cheslik.
The Buckeyes are 2-2-1 at home this season.
"It's exciting to score against a quality team like OSU," Krause said. "However, I remember it being off of a corner kick, so it's important for me and my teammates to capitalize on our moments inside the box."
Saxton said that there is something to be said for the fact that he will be returning both Krause and Cheslik to his starting lineup against the Buckeyes.
"I think there's confidence for both of those two individually," he said. "The team is pretty much the same team we played here last year with a couple new faces on both teams, and we have an important freshman in Mouse [Michaela Kovacs]. I think that should give the team confidence because we had that game well in control."
Ohio State has outscored opponents 27 to 20 while MSU has done the same by a 19-13 margin.
"We need to come out at our very best," Cheslik said. "I am expecting everyone to be ready to play as if it was the Michigan game because this is the biggest game of our season."
Spartan senior Gabrielle Gauruder comes into the match with 17 consecutive starts, five shutouts and holding the top save percentage in conference competition (0.875). She ranks in the top five in four categories in the league for overall contests.
In comparison, OSU's goalkeeper, Jillian McVicker, has played in 15 games with a 6-5-2 record. She has a 1.29 goals allowed average with 32 saves this season and a 0.696 save percentage.
With the Spartans look to gain their first Big Ten Tourney appearance since 2011, Krause believes in her team's ability to finish.
"We have a good team with great players all across the board," she said confidently. "As long as everyone does their role, whether it's playing on the field or supporting teammates from the sideline, we all have to go in the game with a positive, hardworking and winning effort. If we do this, I believe we have an excellent chance for a positive result."
"It'll be a nice challenge for a confident group," Saxton said of the impending contest. "We've been very good defensively. We have a lot of confidence in our team, yielding less than one goal a game. Obviously, Ohio State has a talented attacking group so it'll be a challenge, but I expect us to rise to it."
