Spartans Face Detroit, Marquette in First Road Matchups

Sept. 10, 2013

MSU vs. Detroit: Live Stats and Live Video

MSU vs. Marquette:

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State men's soccer team (2-1-0) will travel to its first road game of the season against Detroit on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 5 p.m. ET at Titan Field. Continuing their travel, the Spartans will take on Marquette at Valley Fields in Milwaukee, Wis., on Sunday, Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. ET.

"I think there are some positives and negatives with road games," said head coach Damon Rensing. "I think you can actually be a little more focused on the road because the only thing you're worried about is the game. Yet, you are in some unfamiliar environments so that can be a little tricky at times. But I think this is a pretty veteran group. They've played enough tough road games in tough environments and different scenarios. So hopefully, they'll be ready to go. We're going to need to bounce back and I have faith in these guys that we will."

In the Rankings
MSU is receiving votes in the College Soccer News Top-30 Poll and is tied for No. 10 with Valparaiso in the NSCAA Great Lakes poll.

Ranked No. 4 in the Big Ten by TopDrawerSoccer.com, Kevin Cope returns for his final season as a team captain for the Spartans. He was recently recognized on TopDrawerSoccer.com's Preseason Best XI second team and is ranked No. 22 of the top-100 Division I players.

Adam Montague, also a team captain, was ranked sixth in the conference by TopDrawerSoccer.com's heading into the 2013 season after posting a goal in every game of the 2012 Big Ten Tournament. He is also No. 47 in the country on TopDrawerSoccer.com's top-100.

Last Time Out
Michigan State recorded the first loss of the season as the team fell to Valparaiso, 2-1 on Sunday, Sept. 8 at DeMartin Stadium. The Spartans lone goal came off a corner kick from Ryan Thelen that set up a header for Kevin Cope sent into the goal off a directional header from Ryan Keener. It marks Cope's second goal of the season, the third of his career.

Conference Recognition
As the reigning Big Ten Tournament Champions, MSU enters the season ranked second in the 2013 Big Ten preseason coaches' poll with 21 returning Spartans.

Three members of the team were recognized by the Big Ten coaches as redshirt senior Kevin Cope and juniors Adam Montague and Fatai Alashe were named to the 2013 Players to Watch list.

Player Appreciation
After recording his first career goal in his inaugural start as a Spartan, freshman Dewey Lewis was named Big Ten Player of the Week by College Soccer Madness on Sept. 2. Lewis stole the ball away from a Bronco defender and beat the keeper to earn an unassisted goal.

Spartan Firsts
In addition to Dewey Lewis' first career goal scored against Western Michigan in his Spartan debut, redshirt senior Ryan Thelen scored his first career goal on Sept. 6 against Oregon State. The game-winning goal was scored off Thelen's seventh corner kick of the game, hooked into the back right corner of the net to give the Spartans a 1-0 victory.

With the win, MSU improved to 2-0 which marked the first time the Spartans started with a two-game shutout since 2007 under former head coach Joe Baum. It was the first 2-0 start to the season for head coach Damon Rensing and the first time in the Rensing era that the Spartans had not allowed a goal in the first two games

Senior Standout
Redshirt senior Kevin Cope was chosen as one of 30 candidates for the 2013 men's collegiate soccer 2013 Senior CLASS Award®, presented by Premier Sports Management. He is only the second candidate from MSU men's soccer program to be a candidate for the award established for the sport in 2007, as 2008 captain Doug DeMartin was in the top-30 his senior season.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.

The two-time captain has already made a huge impact on the pitch for the Spartans this season. Recording one career goal prior to 2013, Cope has scored two goals in MSU's three games thus far.

Stout Schedule
In true Spartan fashion, MSU is slated for another tough season of quality non-conference games in addition to a challenging Big Ten conference schedule. Seven NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago, including National Champion Indiana and semifinalist Creighton, help make up the 2013 slate.

State-ing Their Claim
With four in-state matchups on the 2013 schedule, a goal for the Michigan State men's soccer team is to win the state of Michigan. The Spartans are on their way to accomplishing the feat as they crossed off Western Michigan on Aug. 30 in their home-opening win, 4-0. The team will continue their pursuit as they travel to Detroit (9/11) and host Oakland (10/16) and Michigan (11/9).

The Tale of the Titans
Michigan State owns an 8-5-1 record over Detroit after defeating the Titans in 2012 at home, 1-0. Detroit, who is in the Horizon League, is 0-0-3 on the season after tying IUPUI (0-0), Cornell (1-1) and Robert Morris (0-0).

"It'll be a very difficult game," Rensing said. "They will be motivated. Certainly, with the in-state games, I think people are fired up to play Michigan State. I think Detroit will be also. Like I said earlier, we want to try and win the state of Michigan, so this is another opportunity for us to move in that direction."

Head coach Nicholas Deren enters his fourth year at the helm of the Titans and returns 18 letterwinners from the 2012 season when the team finished 10-9. Detroit is led by Devin Morgan (1-0-2), Stephen Reisert (0-1-1) and Jake Rinow (0-1-1), while goalkeeper Nathan Steinwascher (0.00 GAA, 1.00 Sv%) has made 10 saves and recorded two shutouts in the two of the three draws for Detroit so far this season.

A Glance at the Golden Eagles
The Spartans are 3-1-1 all-time against Marquette, with their most recent meeting ending in a double overtime loss (2-1) in the 2012. The Golden Bears are ranked No. 12 by College Soccer Madness, No. 16 by TopDrawerSoccer.com, No. 23 by College Soccer News and are receiving votes in the NSCAA poll. So far this season, Marquette is 2-1-1 in non-conference play after defeating both Bowling Green (3-0) and Drake (4-1) this past weekend at the Milwaukee Panther Invitational.

"I think we know Marquette a little bit more with this being the fourth year in a row we have played them," said Rensing. "They are a very good team; an NCAA tournament team, preseason top-15 team. But I think they have a pretty good playing field from when we played two years ago on it. They play a good brand of soccer, so it should be a good, challenging game for us."

Marquette is led by Louis Bennett who is in his eighth season as head coach and owns a 43-69-20 record. He returns a total of 15 letterwinners from the 2012 team that finished 16-4-1 including 12 consecutive wins to open the season. Coco Navarro (2-2-6) leads the Golden Eagles, followed by C. Nortey (2-2-6) and Louis Bennett II (2-1-5). In goal, Charlie Lyon (1.42 GAA, .684 Sv%) has played the entirety of Marquette four games this season.

At The Helm
Head Coach Damon Rensing is in his fifth season as head coach, but embarks on his 15th on the Spartan sideline after a standout career for the Spartans (1993-96). Rensing is 44-34-9 in his five seasons as head coach, but MSU boasts a 123-75-21 (.622) overall record with Rensing on the sidelines, including 11 or more wins in nine seasons.

Kylie Stannard and Ben Pirmann serve as the Spartan assistants. Pirmann is also a former Spartan letterwinner, and previously served the program as the volunteer assistant before returning to his alma mater after a coaching stint at Western Michigan. Stannard is a graduate of Creighton, which reached the Elite Eight twice in his career and the semifinals once. Prior to coming to MSU, he was an assistant coach at Northern Illinois. Stannard and Pirmann have both served as the head coach of Detroit City FC, which plays in the National Premier Soccer League. Stannard made his debut in 2012, while Pirmann coached the team in 2013. Former MSU keeper Jeremy Clark, who played for MSU 2008-11, is now in his second season as the team's volunteer coach.

Big Ten Broadcast Schedule
The Big Ten Network will televise two Michigan State men's soccer games live this season. MSU's showdown with Ohio State at DeMartin Stadium is the first game (Oct. 13), and the other home game which will be shown is the Nov. 5 matchup with Notre Dame. The Spartans' games against Valparaiso (Sept. 8), Penn State (Oct. 20) and Michigan (Nov. 9) will be broadcast on Big Ten Digital Network; a paid subscription is necessary. The Big Ten Network will also televise the Big Ten Tournament, which will be held Nov. 15-17 at Ohio State.

Tune In
Follow along with the game through live stats available on Gametracker on msuspartans.com and follow @MSUMSoccer on twitter for play-by-play updates during the game.

Next Up
The Spartans will return home for a mid-week matchup against Bowling Green on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m.