Field Hockey Faces Pair of Ranked Opponents
10/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State field hockey team welcomes a pair of ranked opponents to East Lansing for the final weekend of the regular season. The Spartans will take on No. 10 Northwestern on Friday at 3 p.m. and No. 17 Stanford on Sunday at 2 p.m. Friday's game will air live on BTN, while Sunday's game will stream on BTN Plus.
MSU Notes
•Friday's game will be Michigan State's annual `Pink Game' to support breast cancer awareness, while Sunday's game will be Senior Day to honor the Spartans' seven seniors. The senior class enters the weekend with 37 victories in their career.
• Junior Kendal Anderson leads the Spartans in scoring with 12 goals, tied for the sixth most in the conference. Senior Megan Fenton is second on the team and is tied for eighth place in the Big Ten with 11 goals this season. Anderson also ranks fifth in the Big Ten with 32 points, while her eight assists are tied for ninth on the conference leaderboard.
• With 32 points through 17 games, Anderson's 1.88 points per game are the seventh most in the Big Ten.
• MSU has gotten production from up and down the lineup, as 12 different Spartans have registered a point, while nine different players have tallied goals. Five Spartans currently have more than 10 points on the season.
• Katie Miller earned her first career shutout in a 1-0 win vs. Indiana (10/16) after making a career-high 13 saves in a 4-3 win over Rutgers (10/14). The junior is the likely keeper in the net for MSU and she has started in 14 of 17 games this season. The junior owns a 2.65 GAA and .660 save percentage, while her 4.10 saves per game is the fourth best average in the Big Ten.
• Senior Kristin Matula scored a goal and tallied an assist last weekend and has now registered a point in five straight games and a goal in four of the last five games. The captain has tallied career highs in points (23), goals (9) and assists (5).
• Matula has been a consistent contributor in her four years in the Green in White, playing in 77 games in her career. The next most career appearances on the team are Kendal Anderson's 55.
• After leading the Spartans' offense last season, Sophie Macadré is having another productive season, as she is fourth on the team in scoring with a 6-7-19 scoring line. She also leads the team with three game winning goals, which are tied for the second most in the Big Ten.
• Senior Addie Donaldson has started in all 17 games for the Spartans and has scored one goal to go along with three assists. She is tied with Hannah Ackers for the team lead in defensive saves with two.
• Freshman Kelsey Keener has played in all 17 games during her freshman campaign and has totaled five goals and an assist. Keener had the best weekend of her young career last week, registering her first career two-goal game vs. Iowa before scoring the game-winning goal against Ohio.
Northwestern
Northwestern enters the weekend with an 11-6 overall record and 4-3 mark in conference play. With 12 points in the league standings, the Spartans sit just a win back of NU. The Wildcats offense is one of the best in the league, as NU averages 3.76 goals per game, the second highest mark in the Big Ten.
Isabel Flens leads the attack for Northwestern, as her 14 goals are tied for the third most in the Big Ten. Sophia Miller leads the team and is sixth in the conference with 10 assists, while teammates Kirsten Mansield and Puck Pentenga are one behind her with eight helpers each. Lindsa von der Luft is the likely keeper in net and her 75 saves are the third most in the Big Ten. Von der Luft owns a 2.09 GAA and her .750 save percentage is the second best in the league.
NU holds a 36-24 advantage in the all-time series.
Stanford
The Cardinal enter the weekend with a 9-5 overall record and 5-1 mark in NorPac play. Stanford has been hot as of late, winning eight of its last nine contests. They will take on Northwestern in Ann Arbor on Friday before heading to East Lansing for Sunday's matchup.
Stanford averages 2.14 goals per game and allows its opponents to score just 1.14. Kelsey Bing is the likely keeper for the Cardinals, as she has started in all 14 games and owns a 1.06 GAA and .754 save percentage. Jessica Welch leads the squad with six goals, while Sarah Helegeson (4 g, 3 a) and Fran Twe (5 g, 1 a) each have 11 points.
Michigan State leads the all-time series 8-4.
Home Sweet Home
The Spartans play 12 of their 19 regular season games from the comfort of Ralph Young Field, the most homes games in a season in school history. The last three games of the regular season will take place at home and MSU had a seven-game homestand in the month of September. So far this season, MSU is 6-4 at home, compared to 1-5 on the road and 1-0 in neutral site games.
Strength of Schedule
With two games against ranked opponents this weekend, the Spartans will end the regular season having played eight ranked teams at the time of the game. This week's NFHCA Coaches Poll features those same eight teams that appeared on Michigan State's schedule, including (No. 3), Penn State (No. 6), Louisville (No. 7), Michigan (No. 11) and American (No. 20). Still on the schedule are No. 10 Northwestern and No. 18 Stanford.
Up Next
Michigan State heads to the Big Ten Tournament that will take place on the campus of Maryland, beginning on Thursday, Nov. 3.
