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Michigan State Slips Past Indiana in First-round of Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (Nov. 7, 2003) - No. 2 seed Michigan State got a scare from No. 7 Indiana in the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament, but the Spartans peppered the Hoosiers with 18 shots in the game and prevailed 3-1 Friday morning at Bigler Field. The Spartans await the winner of No. 3 seed Ohio State and No. 6 Northwestern, which will play at 3 p.m. this afternoon. "It was 70 minutes of not the prettiest playing by Michigan State," said Spartans head coach Michele Madison. "But in a tournament, you have to move on. We?re going to take a nap, wake up early tomorrow and play better." Michigan State, ranked sixth in the latest STX/NFHCA coaches poll, started the scoring on its first chance of the game after Michelle Huynh-Ba put a rebound past Molly Pulkrabek off a shot from Jessica Miller. The Spartans? Veerle Goudswaard made it 2-0 with 15:05 remaining in the first half. She took a long pass down the right side and dribbled 1-on-1 with an Indiana defender until she let a shot loose at the corner to beat Hoosier goalkeeper Molly Pulkrabek. Pulkrabek gave the Hoosiers some hope and some solid goalkeeping to keep Indiana in the game to start the second half. She made six quality saves over a span of 1 minute, 12 seconds to keep the game at 2-0, Michigan State. She finished with 12 saves, which is fourth best for a single game in Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament history. The Hoosiers finally broke through with their first score to make it 2-1 at 21:08 remaining as Kayla Bashore sent a shot on net that Erica Nilsson deflected past Christina Kirkaldy. The goal represents the first score for Indiana in its four years of Big Ten Tournament play. Bashore nearly tied the game with 14:34 remaining in the game when she shot through traffic, but the ball went just wide of the net. The Spartans put the game out of reach with 3:17 remaining in the game off a penalty corner. Jennifer Beeuwkes slammed home a shot from the top of the circle off a pass from Breanna Harpstead to make it 3-1. "I think Michigan State's a very talented team," said Indiana coach Amy Robertson. "We just wanted to come in here today and stay in the game for 70 minutes. I'm a little disappointed we weren't able to capitalize when the pace of the game was a slower. But it's great that we battled back in the second half and came back to score a goal. We really had the momentum going for about 20 minutes, but it kind of broke down again. But I'm very pleased with this season and I'm proud of our seniors that have been here for four years."
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