Coming off of a 2-2 draw against No. 9 Arkansas, the No. 8 Michigan State women's soccer team faced off against the Ohio Bobcats for Senior Day at DeMartin Stadium. The Spartans defeated the Bobcats 3-0 with impressive performances on offense and defense.
MSU opened the scoring 10 minutes in as graduate forward Meg Hughes found the center of the net to give the Spartans an early 1-0 lead. Junior midfielder Emerson Sargeant picked up the assist for the Spartans.
“Meg’s been huge for us from the very start she had a good preseason, her running was great against Notre Dame, it was great again last Thursday against Arkansas, made a massive impact in today’s game both on the ball and obviously getting the goal,” said MSU head coach Jeff Hosler.
Hughes added another for the Spartans in the 18th minute to make it 2-0 with sophomore forward Bella Najera and junior defender Sofia Beerworth recording the assists.
MSU headed into halftime with a 2-0 lead over Ohio with Hughes having scored both goals.
MSU’s defense was impressive in the first half as it held Ohio to no shots on goal. The Spartans recorded six shots with three of those shots on goal.
In the second half, both teams went scoreless until the final minute of play as graduate forward Mackenzie Anthony found the back of the net to add the finishing touches to an impressive 3-0 win over the Bobcats. Emerson Saregeant collected her second assist of the afternoon on the Anthony goal.
The Spartans offense recorded 12 shots — including six on goal — while their defense carried the day, holding the Bobcats to three total shots.
Redshirt junior goalkeeper Belle Okoroafo made her first career start, recording two saves.
“Really cool moment, Belle’s earned this opportunity she’s an incredible player with KP [Kaitlyn Parks] playing at an elite level, Belle would be a starter at pretty much any other program in the country right now,” said Coach Hosler. “For her to get in play the way that she did she’s earned it for her performances leading up to this, she had some great spring game performances as well.”
With the win, MSU improves to 2-0-1 on the season and celebrated Senior Day with a victory.
“All of our goals are still ahead of us, it starts with just being our best every day and the non-conference schedule that we’ve already had we’re going to pick it back up next Thursday with Ole Miss, there’s no time to just to rest to sit on that, it's a very focused group they’ve done a great job leading our team so far,” said Coach Hosler
Michigan State returns to the pitch to face Ole Miss on Thursday at 7 p.m. for Student Section Night. Fans can stream the game on B1G+.
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