Spartans Head West to Open 2025 Season

No. 12/11 Michigan State (14-3-5 in 2024 ) at Colorado (12-5-5 in 2024 )
Dates/Location	Thursday, August 14 \| 9 pm ET/ 7 pm MT Prentup Field, Boulder Colo.
Tickets	Colorado Ticket Office
Television	none
Webstream	Watch on ESPN+
Live Statistics	Click Here
Game Notes	Michigan State \| Colorado
Social Media	Facebook X Instagram

The Run of Play
The top notes you need to know about Spartan Women's Soccer

The Particulars
• Michigan State opens its 2024 season - its 40th season of women's soccer - on the road with a game at Colorado. It is the first date that countable games can be played in Division I soccer.

• The game will air live on ESPN+, with Brad Thompson on the call in Boulder. Links for live statistics and the webstream can be found above or on the women's soccer schedule page of MSUSpartans.com.

• This will be the fifth all-time game between MSU and the Buffaloes, with two previous games in East Lansing and two in Boulder. Each team is 1-1 on their home field in this series. Jeff Hosler is 1-1 as the Spartan mentor against Colorado, with a 4-2 home win in 2022 and a 0-2 road setback in 2023.
       The first two games in the all-time series came in 2016 (2-1 MSU win in Boulder) and 2018 (3-0 Colorado at DeMartin Stadium.)

• After Thursday's game, Michigan State will play their next four games at DeMartin Stadium, and seven of their next nine overall. Five of MSU's final eight will be played on the road.

Team Notes
• Michigan State debuted in the United Soccer Coaches 2024 national poll at No. 12 - its highest preseason ranking in program history. MSU completed the 2024 season at No. 14 after advancing to the NCAA Round of 16. In the Top Drawer Soccer poll, the Spartans come in at No. 11.

• Michigan State is coming off a 2024 season in which it compiled a 14-3-5 overall record, and went 7-1-3 in Big Ten games. MSU finished fourth (25 points), one point out of third place and two out of second. The Spartans claimed Big Ten regular-season titles in 2022 and 2023, and advanced to the Sweet 16 in both 2023 and 2024.

• The Spartans are 27-8-4 all-time in season-opening games, which includes a 13-season unbeaten streak in lid lifters (11-2-0). MSU's last season-opening loss came in 2011 (3-2 to Milwaukee) - but the Spartans won each of their next eight games after that first-game setback.

• This is the 18th time that the Spartans will begin their campaign on the road. MSU's only season-opening loss on the road came in a 3-2 overtime game against Bowling Green in 1999. This is the second straight season and third time in four years that MSU will travel to open the year - it opened 2022 at Bowling Green and 2024 at Notre Dame, winning both games.

• The Spartans lost 28 of 45 total goals and 80 of 134 points from the 2024 team, as well as both keepers who played last season. Michigan State returns 19 players from the 2024 roster, however - and welcome nine new freshmen and two junior transfers to the roster.

• In the four-year tenure of MSU head coach Jeff Hosler, MSU owns an overall record of 55-16-14, and is 28-6-6 in Big Ten play. In that stretch, the Spartans own the most B1G victories of the 14 teams who played all four years in the league (two ahead of Rutgers' 26) and the second-most overall wins, behind Penn State's 58. The Green & White is also the only team to finish in the top four of the Big Ten in each of those four seasons.
   Two of the newest members of the Big Ten own 71 (UCLA) and 55 (USC) victories over the last four seasons overall.

• The Spartan schedule features 18 games (plus a home exhibition), 11 home dates, and nine games against opponents who appeared in the final United Soccer Coaches top 25 poll last December. MSU will take the field against nine teams which qualified for the NCAA Tournament a year ago, including Notre Dame (No. 2 in the preseason poll); season opening opponent Colorado not only qualified for the tournament, but the unseeded Buffs reached the second round and the Irish advanced to the final eight. Of the nine B1G squads that made the NCAA Tournament field a year ago (including MSU), eight won at least one game, six advanced into the round of 16 and two into the quarterfinals. MSU's strength of schedule for 2025 is seventh nationally.

• MSU's 2025 recruiting class is ranked No. 12 nationally by Top Drawer Soccer, with all nine first-year players earning three-star rankings or higher and five players among the top 200 incoming freshmen per the outlet's individual rankings.

• The Spartans ranked fifth nationally in overall (28,397) and sixth in average (2,184) attendance last season. MSU's single-game attendance mark was shattered with 5,145 fans on Oct. 5 against Michigan, making it the sixth-most attended regular-season NCAA women's soccer game in 2024. The MSU-Arkansas game on Aug. 22 drew 3,180 fans, which ranked 30th last year.

• MSU hosted No. 9 TCU in an exhibition game last Saturday (Aug. 9). The teams played a regulation 90 minutes. The Spartans played two of their three keepers and a total of 25 athletes saw the field.

Player Notes
• The Spartan roster is distributed nearly equally across classes, with six seniors/grad students, eight juniors, six sophomores, and 10 freshmen.

• The Spartans return six players with 16 or more starts last year: Seniors Sofia Beerworth and Maggie Illig, juniors Bella Najera and Renee Watson, and sophomores Julia Belli and Kaleigh McPherson. A pair of Spartan starters from 2023 both lost the 2024 season to injury (Regan Dalton and Emerson Sargeant), and return healthy for the upcoming campaign to provide MSU a solid corps of seasoned veterans with an eye on making a run at their third Big Ten title in three seasons.

• Illig (Second Team) earned a spot on the United Soccer Coaches 2025 Preseason Defenders to Watch list and is a returning USC All-North Region Pick, earning a spot on the second team a year ago. She was one of four All-Region picks for MSU at the conclusion of last season, along with Meg Hughes, Kaitlyn Parks, and Third Team All-American Justina Gaynor.

• The early-season losses of Regan Dalton and Sargeant a year ago left a hole in the Spartan midfield - Dalton was injured in the first game of the year, and Sargeant in the fifth. Sargeant had a 4-6-14 scoring line as a sophomore and already had four assists to her credit in the first four games of 2024 before suffering the injury.

• Junior Renee Watson missed a month of the Spartan season last year with the Canadian Women's National Team at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. She returned to the team (and the starting lineup) for the Sept. 17 game against Nebraska.

• Illig and Najera (Third Team) are MSU's returning All-Big Ten players from a year ago. Najera led the 2024 squad in goals (8) and her 19 points ranked second on the team a year ago and leads all returnees. She was also identified as one of the United Soccer Coaches Midfielders to Watch.

• Sophomores Belli and McPherson both garnered spots on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team a year ago. Belli started every game as a freshman and McPherson started 16 of the team's final 17 contests. Each had a goal in 22 games.

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Players Mentioned

Sofia Beerworth

Julia Belli

Regan Dalton

Justina Gaynor

Meg Hughes

Maggie Illig

Kaleigh McPherson

Bella Najera

Kaitlyn Parks

Emerson Sargeant

Renee Watson