Field Hockey Blanked by No. 9 Stanford, 3-0

Oct. 28, 2011

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EAST LANSING, Mich.- In its final home match of the season, the Michigan State field hockey team (7-11, 1-4 Big Ten) was shutout by No. 9 Stanford, 3-0. Redshirt goaltender Molly Cassidy tallied 11 saves against the Cardinal, and freshman Becky Stiles led the Spartan offensive with six shots.

"All week we've been working on numbers up, numbers down and numbers even situations and I think it helped us today to find a simple pass when we did have those situations up field," commented head Coach Helen Knull. "We played a lot into Stanford's keeper. We didn't challenge her too much. I was pleased we generated more attacking and got more opportunities on offense."

Stanford's offense put the pressure on early, tallying two shots and a corner play in the first five minutes of the game. The defense stood strong and kept their shots out of the back of the cage.

Freshman forward Abby Barker generated an offensive attack with 15 minutes left in the first half when she carried the ball down the center of the field to create momentum in the Spartan?s favor. The ball was passed to freshman forward Allie Ahern, whose shot was saved by Ale Moss.

The Cardinal were able to take advantage of being in the attacking circle after a failed corner attempt at 30:24. Alex McCawley was able to tip in Courtney Haldeman's cross across the goal line to put Stanford on the board.

Stanford came out of half time on the offensive attack, scoring two minutes into the second half of play. Hope Burke took a hard shot from the stroke line that went directly into the left side of the cage.

Cassidy stood strong against three Cardinal shots a few minutes later, saving all three of the visitor's attempts. Shannon Herold was able to score Stanford's third goal after picking up the rebound off of one of Cassidy's saves and crashing the net. Becky Dru was credited with the assist.

As time was expiring, the Spartans were awarded a corner play. Stiles' first shot was saved, but another Stanford foul was committed and the Spartans were granted another corner. Stiles' next shot was stopped by Kelsey Lloyd. MSU got another corner play, and Stiles' initial shot was saved and eventually was cleared out of the circle by a defender, ending the match.

The Spartans were outshot 19-12, but held the advantage in corners, 10-6.

Michigan State travels to No. 8 Penn State on Sunday for its regular-season finale.