No. 8 Spartans drop No. 13 James Madison, 4-1

Sept. 19, 2009

Harrisonburg, Va. - Michigan State used a three goal second half and solid defense to defeat the No. 13 James Madison Dukes, 4-1 Saturday afternoon in Harrisonburg, Va.

"We had some trouble early on but we were able to turn the game in our favor late," said head coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. "We did really well today. A lot of different players stepped up and we were able to get a victory on the road against a good James Madison team."

Michigan State fell behind early in the game when James Madison's Becky Hilgar took a pass from Tori Lindsey and put it into the back of the net giving the Dukes a 1-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. The Spartans responded at the 20 minute mark when junior Angela Pagura redirected a Manouk Vernij shot into the back of the net off of a penalty corner, knotting the game at 1-1 heading into halftime.

The Spartans came out quickly in the second half when a shot from junior Jantine Steinmetz found the upper right corner of the goal giving Michigan State its first lead of the game, 2-1. Less than three minutes after the Steinmetz goal, the Spartans were on the scoreboard again when freshman Kristen Henn poked a rebound into the right side of the net for her first career tally, making the score 3-1 in favor of the Spartans. Junior Julie Mackay added the game's final score off a beautiful assist from Chantae Miller at the 60 minute mark. The Spartans played lockdown defense the rest of the way to preserve the 4-1 victory.

The Spartans, who improved their record to 5-2, will return to action tomorrow afternoon when they travel to Charlottesville, Va. for a noon matchup with No. 5 Virginia.