Michigan State University
3-1-1
Notre Dame
5-0-1
Notre Dame Nicks Spartans
9/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
EAST LANSING, Mich. -
Sixth-ranked Notre Dame (5-0-1) came away with a 2-0 shutout win over the Michigan State (3-1-1) women's soccer team on Sunday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium.
Notre Dame took a 1-0 lead in a physically aggressive back and forth first half as senior Anna Marie Gilbertson found the back of the net, sinking the ball into the far left corner past senior MSU goalkeeper Gabrielle Gauruder in the 32nd minute.
"Coming into today's game all of us expected that we were going to have to work as hard as we could," Gauruder said. "Credit to Notre Dame, they look up and they look to shoot. No matter what team, it will pin a defense and a goalie every time."
Gauruder finished with six total saves for the contest.
Meanwhile, the Spartans had several opportunities to slip behind the Irish backline but were unable to capitalize.
Critical to limiting Notre Dame's offensive momentum were seniors Mary Kathryn Fiebernitz and Alexandra Gjonaj, responsible for foiling multiple looks. Freshmen Alexis Warner and Michaela Kovacs also had solid contributions to the Spartan midfield effort as well.
Starting the second half, the Irish again would make the most of a defensive breakdown as freshman Natalie Jacobs scored off a junior Sandra Yu assist in the 54th minute.
Spartan head coach Tom Saxton was "disappointed" that his team was "unable to get anything going" in the midfield position in order to "open things up and have a chance to use some of our weapons and attack."
"There were seven or eight players out there giving it everything they had," Saxton said. "We didn't get any type of offensive rhythm going in the first half. We were a little better in the second half but we conceded again and that was problematic."
Gauruder said that today could be used for "rebuilding," stating that the team needs to keep a positive attitude as they go into their next home game against the University of San Francisco Friday, Sept. 11 at 4 p.m.
Team Stats
Anna Gilbertson (3)
Shot from 15 yards out along the right s
31:59
Natalie Jacobs (2)
Assisted By: Sandra Yu
Shot from 8 yards out in the box
53:58
