Michigan State University
Richmond
Field Hockey Takes Down Richmond, 6-1
9/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
"Our big focus today was playing possession hockey and playing with a purpose," said head coach Helen Knull. "We needed to come out today and play our style of hockey. It took us a few minutes to get our feet under us, but after that I thought we played our best hockey of the year today, so I am excited about that."
The Spartans got contributions from several players on the afternoon. Alli Helwig opened the floodgates with her game-tying goal in the 13th minute on a penalty stroke. From there, the Spartans would add two more to take a 3-1 lead into the break before tacking on another three in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Abby Barker and Allie Ahern each scored two goals, while Barker also tallied an assist on Ahern's first score. Becky Stiles and Alli Helwig facilitated the offense, as they each recorded two assists. Redshirt freshman Kendall Anderson scored again on Sunday, a day after her first career goal in Saturday's game vs. Kent State.
Freshman goalkeeper Katie Miller also saw her first action for the Green and White during the second half. In ten minutes in net, Miller made four saves.
"Every single athlete on the roster played today, and that was great to see," said Knull. "For everyone, this is just confidence. We are seeing more people show up on the score sheet, both offensively and defensively. The more people that we can have scoring and assisting on goals, the easier it is going to be for us to win games. Depth is ideally what we are looking for, and we were able to get a lot of players minutes this weekend, which is ultimately going to help them."
Michigan State opens up Big Ten play on the road next Friday at 3 p.m. when it takes on Ohio State.
