Women’s Soccer Falls Short on Senior Day

In a hard-fought battle between Michigan State and Penn State on senior day at DeMartin Stadium, the Spartans fell short, 2-1.

In the first 10 minutes, both teams were in a back and forth battle going up and down the pitch and getting shots off, but not on target.

The game eventually slowed down and the Spartans would take advantage of an early opportunity when freshman forward, Jamie Cheslik, found senior midfielder, Megan Marsack, on a through ball inside the box which she finished to put Michigan State up 1-0 in the 20th minute.

“We’re all just running up, Paige [Wester] played a ball,” Marsack said. “Ally [Krause] took a really nice touch and just played it to the middle for me. I took one touch and some girl was on my back and I just chipped it over the goalie.”

The Nittany lions would not go away though as they kept playing balls over the top to try to get through the Michigan State defense.

In the 37th minute, Penn State would respond with a goal off a rebound that redshirt senior, Courtney Clem, would give up off a long shot, which allowed senior midfielder, Kori Chapic, to get a foot on it and poke the ball past a diving Clem into the back of the net.

“It was just a fast-paced game,” redshirt junior defender, Mary Kathryn Fiebernitz said. “They were looking to get behind us over the top and were pretty in the air, but we got caught on the first goal, slipping in the mouth of the goal because it’s pretty slippery in there.”

The Spartans came out firing in the second half, as they had multiple scoring opportunities inside the box, but could not convert them.

The best scoring chance came in the 54th minute, when Krause, found Wester on a through ball which she took a touch around redshirt junior goalkeeper, Britt Eckerstrom, and hit a shot towards the goal that Chapic blocked for a corner kick.

Penn State would respond with a few scoring chances of their own. In the 68th minute, the Nittany Lions had a corner kick, which was cleared by the Spartans, but right to a Nittany Lion who whipped a cross into the box and found the head of freshman defender, Elizabeth Ball, who placed the ball into the far left corner to give the Nittany Lions a 2-1 lead.

“We know we’re good, but you can’t leave as many chances out there as we did today,” head coach Tom Saxton said. “We had such great entries and got around the corner several times, but a couple times we slotted the ball across the six and there were no Spartans on the other end. Those are the areas we need to continue to grow in.”

Michigan State will play its final three games on the road with the first game coming at the University of Illinois on Oct. 24.


Brooks Laimbeer is the host of Corner Kick for Impact Sports

Photo: Scott Wasserman/Impact Sports