MSU women's soccer: Spartans fall to the Chippewas, 2-1

EAST LANSING – The Michigan State women’s soccer team fell, 2-1, Sunday afternoon to Central Michigan University, due to early goals from the Chippewas.

After Sunday’s loss, the Spartans move to 2-2-1 on the season, while Central Michigan remains undefeated at 5-0-0.

“The difference in the game was it was a good, even, well-played college soccer game, but the commitment in the penalty area was huge,” said head coach Tom Saxton. “Central went hard to everything, they got lots of balls, and we created the same type of pressure on them, but we weren’t able to match their pressure in the box.”

Central got an early jump on Michigan State finding the back of the net in the fifth minute of action. Madison Pogarch of Central Michigan capitalized on her second corner kick of the game and crossed the ball to the box where Jamie Rademacher got her head on the ball, slipping it past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Kaitlin Collins.

Later in the half, Michigan State had two back-to-back corner kicks and three consecutive shots in the box, but were unable to find the equalizer.

Central Michigan added an insurance goal in the 34th minute after a cross by Samantha Maher connected with Alexis Pelafas to give the Chippewas the 2-0 edge.

The Spartans found their lone goal of the game in the 60th minute. After a hard fought battle in the box, Michigan State had the opportunity to capitalize on a penalty kick. Senior Marisa Oleksiak took the penalty shot and sent it to the bottom right of the net to bring the score to 2-1.

Michigan State was unable to get the tying goal in the final minutes and fell, 2-1. After recording five saves, Collin received the loss today to bring her record to 2-2-1 on the season and CMU’s goaltender, Kristen Knutson improved to 5-0-0.

“We are going to build on some of the positive thing this week of practice,” said Saxton. "We moved the ball around better today than we did in Colorado, but the end result is we need to score goals. We have to work on that end product and getting people a little hungrier inside the box when they have the chance.”

The Spartans are on a three-game homestand and will welcome Oregon State to DeMartin Stadium this Friday, Sept. 9. The game is slated to begin at 2 p.m., followed by the Michigan State men’s team hosting Rutgers.

From the Michigan State University Athletics Department