MSU Field Hockey Falls to No. 13 James Madison

Sept. 8, 2006

HARRISONBURG, Va. - The Michigan State field hockey team suffered a tough loss to No. 13 James Madison University on Friday. The Spartans were knotted 1-1 with Dukes at the half, but a late second-half goal allowed JMU to come away with a 2-1 victory.

Freshman Anne-Sophie van Rijswijk scored her second goal of the season at 4:50 to give Michigan State (1-4) an early lead on assists from Amy Schneider and Charlotte van der Laag. The Spartan defense played well against a very physical James Madison team, holding the score at 1-0 until 27:52 when James Madison's Ashley Walls scored on a corner to knot the score at 1-1.

Michigan State played a very defensive second half, but was unable to create scoring opportunities on offense, taking only six shots compared to the 11 by James Madison (4-1). The Dukes were eventually able to convert one of those shots to take the lead 2-1 at 62:15 on a goal by Meghan Bain. MSU senior goalkeeper Stephanie Yuhasz kept the Spartans in the game tallying five of her eight saves in the second half.

"Steph did a fantastic job in goal, and Amy and Becky each had saves on defense that helped us stay in the game," said head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. "Now we need to learn to play 70 minutes as a team. If we do that we can make things a little harder for our opponents."

The Spartans return to action tomorrow against St. Joseph's at 2 p.m. in Harrisonburg, Va.