After a seven-game winning streak was snapped with a loss to No. 19 Davenport, No. 8 Michigan State will try to regroup as they take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers Saturday.

Minnesota (8-4, 4-1) plays in the Upper Midwest Lacrosse Conference, where they are currently in second place.  They have won six of their last seven games, with the only loss coming to Minnesota-Duluth, whom MSU beat 9-5 earlier this season.

The last meeting between the two teams was back in 2009, with MSU winning by a score of 15-3.

The trio of attackmen Sean Lee, Eric Fong and Benjamin Nash lead a Golden Gophers offense that has failed to score in double figures only three times all season.

Lee, a senior captain and reigning UMLC Offensive Player of the Year, leads the conference with 27 goals, adding 12 assists as well. He has put up three or more goals in six games this season.

Both Fong and Nash were named UMLC second-team All-Conference attackmen last season, in their freshman and sophomore seasons, respectively.

Minnesota sports a solid defense as well, with goalie Matt Jorgensen allowing a conference-low average of seven goals per game.

The powerful Minnesota offense might require the Spartans to break out of a recent scoring slump if they hope to win. MSU has only scored 17 goals in the past two games combined, a far cry from their 12 goals a game average for the season.

Attackmen Mac Ensley, Mitchell Hall and Danny Myers will need to rebound after posting only five points between them last week against Davenport, and 12 points total in the last two games.

The two teams will meet at 12 p.m. Saturday at Ralph Young Field in East Lansing.

Tyler Beck is the host of Lax Attack for Impact Sports.

Photo: Hannah McEnroe/Impact Sports