After a 1-0 win over Ole Miss, the No. 4 ranked Michigan State women’s soccer team was looking to remain undefeated as they faced off against the No. 15 Xavier Musketeers on Sunday in a top 15 showdown at DeMartin Stadium.
The Spartans and Musketeers played to a highly intense 2-2 draw.
Even though the Spartans are still undefeated, this one stinged as they felt like a win slipped away, especially considering Xavier's late goal and how much head coach Jeff Hosler stresses the "big five" minutes (last five minutes of each half).
“They’ve got to have emotion all 90 minutes,” Hosler said after the game. “The reason the game ended this way was because we let them be on their front foot. We talked so much about the big fives making a big difference in this game and they showed up and bit us in the butt. We don’t finish off the game that last five which is the most important of those and the whole result changes. A draw is much closer to a loss than it is to a win and Xavier is an incredible team. They’re going to win a ton of games this year as they already have. That would’ve been really good for our resume.”
In the first half, both teams were shut out despite many scoring opportunities by both teams. The Spartans recorded five shots with one shot on goal in the first half, while the Musketeers collected four shots with one shot on goal.
In the second half, Xavier threatened with many scoring opportunities and scored via an own goal in the 63rd minute to make it 1-0.
The Spartans equalized in the 75th minute as sophomore forward Bella Najera found the bottom center of the net to tie the game at one. Graduate midfielder Justina Gaynor picked up the assist on the goal.
The Spartans took the lead in the 77th minute with a beautiful goal by junior defender Maggie Illig and Gaynor picked up her second assist of the afternoon.
“(I was) really impressed with the response," Hosler said. "We dug ourselves a big a hole, start of the second half we didn’t have any kind of intensity. We didn’t have much communication or leadership in those moments."
In the final minute of play, a penalty was awarded to the Musketeers because of a handball call on redshirt junior defender Taya Hjorth. Xavier would equalize to make it 2-2 as senior midfielder Samantha Wiehe converted the equalizing penalty.
Despite the draw, graduate goalkeeper Kaitlyn Parks had an excellent performance in net recording eight saves.
“KP was great," Hosler added. "I think especially her shot stopping, that’s the area of her game that she’s made the biggest climb from last season is her shot stopping and her ability to deal with crosses and she was great in both of those areas today and really kept us in the game."
With the draw, the Spartans move to 3-0-2 on the season. MSU will face off against Queens University on Thursday at 7 p.m.
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