Women's Soccer Hosts No. 17 Badgers Sunday

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State women's soccer team finishes its two-game Big Ten home weekend with No. 17 Wisconsin visiting DeMartin Stadium for a 1 p.m. kickoff Sunday.

The Spartans sit at 5-2-3 overall and 0-1-2 in conference, while the Badgers come in at 7-2-1 and 1-1-1 in Big Ten play.

LAST TIME OUT
The Spartans, and redshirt-junior goalkeeper Reilley Ott recorded their sixth shutout of the season in a 0-0 draw with Minnesota in the B1G home opener Thursday. MSU played to its second double-overtime draw in the last three games, and third of the season, after tying Purdue 2-2 (Sept. 13), and Washington 1-1 (Sept. 2).

CAMRYN CRAZIES
Camryn Evans, a true freshman from Fenton, Mich., scored two more goals in the Spartans' 2-2 draw at Purdue (Sept. 13), the third time this season she has scored twice in a game. The forward is tied for the Big Ten lead in goals scored (6) and leads the conference in goals per game average (0.75). Evans is also currently tied for third in the country among freshmen with six put away, trailing only Middle Tennessee's Hannah Tillett (8) and Louisville's Maisie Whitsett (7). Evans ranks third in the conference in both points per game (1.50), and shot accuracy (0.619).

MICHIGAN STATE NOTES
Goalkeeper Reilley Ott sits in the top half of several goalkeeping statistics in the conference. Ott is second in shutouts (6), while also currently sitting second in saves per game (5.11). Sophomore Danielle Stephan ranks in the top 10 of the Big Ten Conference in two categories. The midfielder is ninth in assists per game (0.43), and 10th in total assists (3). The Spartans rank second in the conference in save percentage (0.836), and third in shutout percentage (0.556). Offensively, MSU is second in the Big Ten in shot accuracy at 0.577.

SCOUTING THE BADGERS
UW comes in at No. 17 in this week's United Women's Soccer Coaches' Poll, a five-spot jump from last week after they recorded a 1-1 2OT draw vs. No. 12 Northwestern and a 1-0 win vs. Illinois. The Badgers (7-2-1, 1-1-1 Big Ten) sat in a tie for second place after the first week of conference play, and rode a seven-game unbeaten streak into Ann Arbor before losing 2-0 to the Wolverines Thursday. Junior Dani Rhodes was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after knocking in the tying goal against Northwestern and the game-winner against Illinois. Sophomore forward Lauren Rice leads the team with 10 points (4g, 2a). UW leads the all-time series at 29-4-2.

SAXTON SAYS
"We should protect our home turf. We have pride here, and we have a pretty good record here this year. We need to keep that going with a tough Wisconsin team coming in. I'd like to see better box organization going forward. When we get into the final third we're getting over rotated to the ball and don't have the players on the back post we need to crash on to the serve. We need to fix that Sunday."

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Players Mentioned

Camryn Evans

Reilley Ott

Danielle Stephan