Spartans Outlast Bowling Green in Overtime, 3-2

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State women's soccer defeated Bowling Green, 3-2, in overtime on Thursday night at DeMartin Stadium. The Spartans improve to 6-1-0 on the season and remain undefeated at home in non-conference play with a 5-0-0 mark.

Michigan State is 2-0-0 in overtime games this season, with the first overtime win coming at Boston University on Sept. 1.

"I hope (our confidence) will just carry on," MSU head coach Tom Saxton said. "I do think we want to, when we go into overtime, have that confidence that we've done this before and have succeeded before; this year so far, we can say that we have. Certainly that should boast well for us moving forward."

Sophomore forward Gia Wahlberg, who went into the game tied for sixth in the NCAA in total goals, scored her fourth game winning goal of the season and second overtime goal, two minutes into overtime to seal the win for Michigan State. Junior midfielder Bella Jodzis was able to find the head of Wahlberg on a corner, to put the ball past Bowling Green goalkeeper Kathleen Duwve.

With her eighth goal of the season, Wahlberg has scored the most goals by a Spartan in a single-season since Jamie Cheslik also scored eight goals during the 2014 season.

The first-half featured a flurry of goals on both sides, with three goals coming in a span of six minutes.

The Falcons got on the board first in the 10^th minute, with a cross from Kristin Tveit finding the head of Nikki Cox.

MSU responded with a goal of their own less than three minutes later, to tie the game back up. With traffic in front of the Falcon goalkeeper, sophomore forward Camryn Evans scored her second goal of the season and fired a shot into the empty space of the net off a header from senior defender Michaela Kovacs.

The Bowling Green attack didn't falter after the Spartan goal, with Cox finding the back of the net for the second time in the game. Cox headed the ball from a double pass off a corner kick, resulting in a 2-1 BG advantage in the 16^th minute.

After Bowling Green's second goal, the score would remain 2-1 with the Falcons having a one goal advantage for over 60 minutes of play.

The Spartans started to find their stride in the second-half and were able to gain momentum as the half closed out. MSU had six shots in the second 90 minutes, compared to the three in the first-half.

Freshman forward Paige Webber scored the game-tying goal in the 80^th minute to even the score at 2-2 and force the team's second overtime game of the season. Senior midfielder Sam Sklarski found the head of Webber, who was able to fire the ball into the back of the net.

This was Webber's second career goal and second game-tying goal, as the freshman also scored the game-tying goal at Boston University on Sept. 1, which resulted in a 2-1 victory for the Spartans.

With the two goals, the Spartan goal total through seven games hit 17 goals, which tops the team's total goals in 2018. Last season, the Spartans scored 16 goals through all 18 games.

"This team has shown resiliency, and it's shown it's a team that can make adjustments and continue to fight. So that was great," Saxton said. "I think to the point about Bowling Green's quality; it's a good test for us as we're winding down non-league play. When I looked at the non-league schedule, I had Bowling Green up there with Butler and Boston University, and I think that proved to be true. We've been fortunate enough to come away with two of those, so that's good for us. Now we've got to get the job done on Sunday at Oakland and get ready for Big Ten play."

UP NEXT: The Spartans close out non-conference play on the road at Oakland on Sunday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m.

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Team Stats

Camryn Evans

Gia Wahlberg

Paige Webber

Michaela Kovacs

Players Mentioned

Jamie Cheslik

Camryn Evans

Bella Jodzis

Michaela Kovacs

Sam Sklarski

Gia Wahlberg

Paige Webber