MSU Women's Soccer Hosts Purdue on Sunday

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Spartans return home to the friendly confines of DeMartin Stadium for a Sunday matchup with Purdue at 1 p.m.

The Spartans head into the second week of conference play with a 7-3-0 overall record and are looking for the first conference win of the season, sitting at 0-2-0 in Big Ten matches.

LAST TIME OUT
Due to inclement weather, the Spartans matchup with Indiana on Friday, Sept. 27 was postponed to a later date due to inclement weather.

The Spartans and Hoosiers got through 22 minutes of play, before the game went into a weather delay. The teams were unable to restart due to lightning in the surrounding East Lansing area.

This is the second straight year that a game has been postponed for the Spartans, with the team's game at Nebraska on Oct. 14 being rescheduled last season due to snowy weather conditions.

DEFENDING DEMARTIN
Michigan State looks to remain undefeated at home this season, as the team went through non-conference play with a 5-0-0 record at DeMartin Stadium.

The team's home wins were over Utah Valley and Marshall and shutouts over Eastern Michigan and Detroit Mercy. The Spartans closed non-conference play at home with a 3-2 overtime win over Bowling Green on Sept. 12.

This was the Spartans' first overtime win in two seasons as MSU's last overtime win at home was on Sept. 29, 2016. The Spartans defeated the Terapins, 3-2, in double overtime.

SPARTANS AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
Wahlberg and Stephan are both ranked nationally in total goals and total assists, respectively.

With her eight goals this season, Wahlberg leads the Big Ten and is tied for 13th nationally in total goals scored. Wahlberg has scored the most goals by a Spartan in a single-season since Jamie Cheslik also scored eight goals during the 2014 season. She is also tied for second nationally with four-game winning goals.

Stephan has a team-high five assists in the first ten games, which is good for second in the Big Ten. Stephan led the Spartans in assists for the past two seasons, tallying six in 2017 and four last season.

FRESHMEN IN THE LINEUP
Freshman Paige Webber and Bria Schrotenboer have earned starting positions in the Spartan lineup this season.

Webber is the only freshman to start in all 10 games this season and has eight points with three goals and two assists to begin her rookie campaign.

Schrotenboer has started in seven games on the Spartan backline this season, playing in all 90 minutes in six of the seven games.The freshman missed three games at the beginning of the season to train with the U.S. U-20 Women's National Team in California.

SCOUTING THE BOILERMAKERS
The Spartans lead the all-time series record with Purdue, 13-9-2, including a home record of 7-5-0.

Last season, the teams met in West Lafayette, in a game that resulted in a 2-2 tie. Camryn Evans scored the two goals for the Spartans.

Purdue enters the weekend 2-0-0 in Big Ten play, with home shutouts of Nebraska and No. 19 Iowa, contributing to the Boilermakers' six shutouts through the team's first nine games.

After last weeks wins, Purdue earned three of the four Big Ten weekly awards with goalkeeper Marisa Bova and freshman defender Sydney Sparks garnering the weekly honors.

The Boilermakers will play at Michigan on Thursday, Sept. 27, before making the trip to East Lansing on Sunday.

MICHIGAN STATE NOTES
MSU's seven non-conference wins are the most since 2011 when the team also went 7-1 in non-conference play to begin the season.

The Spartans have had seven different goal scorers through the first 10 matches. The seven goal scorers tops last season's numbers, with there only being six goal scorers through all 18 games in 2018.

After not recording an overtime win in the past two seasons, MSU has two overtime wins in the first ten games. Michigan State is 2-0-0 in overtime games this season.

Through 10 games, the Spartans have 21 total goals, which ranks third in the Big Ten. The 21 goals are already the most in a season since 2014 when the team scored 24 total goals.

MSU leads opponents in shots on goal (63-52), shots per game (11.8-11.0), corners (46-34) and total goals (21-14) through 10 games.

PRESEASON HONORS
Sophomore forward Camryn Evans, senior defender Michaela Kovacs and freshman defender Bria Schrotenboer were selected to the Big Ten Women's Soccer Preseason Honors List.

SAXTON SAYS
"First of all, mindset and attitude has been good this week and it's been a good week of training. We know we're coming home; we talked about it all year - we have to be strong and defend our home stadium, so that mindset is critical. We feel that and we'll feel it going into the game tomorrow for sure."

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Players Mentioned

Jamie Cheslik

Camryn Evans

Michaela Kovacs

Bria Schrotenboer

Paige Webber