MSU Zaps Xavier, 2-0, in Season Opener

Wednesday, August 12

7:30 PM

Michigan State University

1-0-0, 0-0-0

Xavier

0-1-0, 0-0-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Xavier	0	0	0
Michigan State	0	2	2

MSU Celebrates a Kayla Briggs goal in the 2026 season opener

8/12/2026 11:35:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's women's soccer team opened the 2026 season with a 2-0 victory over visiting Xavier on Wednesday night at DeMartin Stadium.

The game was a matchup that resonated on the national scale on opening night around Division I women's soccer. The Spartans are ranked seventh nationally in the preseason polls. Xavier, an NCAA Tournament team a year ago out of the BIG EAST, received votes in the preseason survey.

Kayla Briggs and Kennedy Bell had the scores for MSU (1-0, 0-0 B1G). Noelle Henning picked up her first shutout of the season, making five saves. Xavier keeper Taylor Thomas finished with three saves for the visitors.

Kayla Briggs scores the first goal of the 2026 season! She breaks the scoreless tie less than two minutes into the second half. pic.twitter.com/ZzV2TNeABh
— Michigan State Women's Soccer (@MSU_wsoccer) August 13, 2026

The teams were scoreless through the opening half, but things got interesting early when Xavier defender Fiona Skwierawski picked up a pair of yellow cards in the opening 22 minutes. The Musketeers had to play a man down for the balance of the match, but did hold off the MSU offense through the opening 45 minutes.

MSU wasted little time getting on the board after the intermission. With just under two minutes elapsed, Briggs put MSU on the board, making an impressive individual effort to shake off a defender on her hip and launch a shot into the high right side of the net. Ella Janz set up Bell for the second score, finding Bell on the right side for her first goal of the season.

The Musketeers were unable to solve Henning, but had five shots on net that were all snagged by the sophomore. It was her ninth career shutout.

SCORING
47' – MSU 1, XAV 0 - Kayla Briggs raced up the left side with a defender on her outside hip. She outran her marker, drove to her right, and shot high to the right side to score the first goal of the season for MSU.

55' –MSU 2, XAV 0 - Ella Janz corralled an attempt to clear the ball out of the offensive third, and sent the ball ahead for Kennedy Bell at the top right corner of the box. Bell took it to the top corner of the penalty area, and the keeper Thomas came out to challenge her. Bell shot sharply to her left, and the ball found its intended mark.

Kennedy Bell doubles the Spartan lead (2-0), taking the pass from Ella Janz and scoring her first of the season. pic.twitter.com/VdKD4h9nJh
— Michigan State Women's Soccer (@MSU_wsoccer) August 13, 2026

Notables

Michigan State outshot the visitors by a 16-8 margin, including an 8-3 advantage in the second half. MSU also had four corners to Xavier's three.
The Spartans are 4-0-1 under Jeff Hosler in season-opening games.
Noelle Henning posted her ninth career shutout. She is one shy of moving into MSU's all-time top 10 in that category.
Junior center back Julia Belli returned to the Spartan lineup after missing the entire 2025 season with injury. The 2024 Big Ten All-Freshman team selection started all 22 games as a freshman on MSU's back line.
Sophomores Aubree Ciampa and Mackenzie Kruer played in their first career games in Green & White. Ciampa missed the 2025 season with an injury and Kruer redshirted. Junior transfer Faith George also got her first game in a Spartan uniform, starting on the Spartan back line.
Three freshmen got into their first collegiate games tonight: Mekenzie Rogers, Lacey Kindel, and Saydie Herbert.

UP NEXT
Michigan State hosts Loyola (Chicago) next Wednesday (Aug. 19) at 7:30 pm. Single-game tickets and season memberships are available by visiting sprtns.co/WSOC26tix.