No. 5 Irish Snap Spartan Home Unbeaten Streak

East Lansing, Mich. –Annabelle Chukwu had a three-goal effort as No. 5 Notre Dame earned a 3-0 road win at Michigan State on Thursday evening.

The Spartans (3-2-2) and Irish (5-0-1) were equal in several areas of the scoresheet – each team had 13 shot attempts, three keeper saves and five corner kicks, and Notre Dame had 20 fouls to MSU's 16 and also recorded three yellow cards.

The Irish held a 1-0 lead at the half but Michigan State had a pair of good looks in the opening 45 – Kayla Briggs fought off the Notre Dame defender and despite having her shot blocked, was able to get another foot on it, forcing keeper Sonoma Kascia to push it away at the left post. Late in the period, Bella Najera had a free kick that was blocked at the end of the player wall, and her second attempt just barely missed a Spartan redirection attempt in front.

The Irish scored twice in the first five minutes of the second half to open up the game. MSU couldn't clear it out of its defensive third despite blocking a pair of attempts, and the ball got pushed to Chukwu for a shot from the top of the box that eluded the outstretched arms of Noelle Henning. The third goal came off a corner play, where Chuckwu got her second header of the game, putting it over the goal line in the 49^th minute.

Freshman Noelle Henning manned the net for the Spartans, finishing with three saves. Her Irish counterpart Kascia earned the shutout with three stops.

SCORING
25' – MSU 0, ND 1: Leah Klenke had the ball in the deep left corner, and after eluding the defender, dribbled it along the goal line and served it to the far post. The ball went directly to Annabelle Chukwu, who got a head on it and directed it right into the bottom right corner of the net..
47' – MSU 0, ND 2: The Spartan defense stifled a pair of shot attempts at the top of the box, but Grace Restovich slid it across the top to Chukwu. She launched a right-footed rising shot past the arms of a diving Henning.
49' – MSU 0, ND 3: Chukwu got her third of the game off a corner . It was sent in from the far-left corner by Morgan Roy, and Chuckwu flicked it past the Spartan defense to complete her hat trick.

MATCH NOTES

The Spartans have lost back-to-back regular-season games for the first time under Jeff Hosler, who is now in his fifth season. The only other time they have lost consecutive games under Hosler was in his first season, when the Spartans fell 2-1 to Penn State in the regular-season finale and 1-0 in the Big Ten Tournament to Iowa.
MSU was shut out for the second time this season, also playing to a scoreless draw against Dayton (Aug. 17).
This was MSU's first home loss since a 2-1 loss to Iowa in the first round of the 2023 Big Ten Tournament. The Spartans had a 17-game regular-season home unbeaten streak entering the game.
MSU surrendered its first second-half goals of the season. All of its previous goals allowed came in the first 34 minutes of games.
Junior Kayla Briggs led MSU with four shot attempts, while Bella Najera had three. Najera, Adelle Francis, and Sofia Beerworth each had a shot on net.
Freshman Ava Lutke made her first career start and played 65 minutes.

UP NEXT
The Spartans have a week before their Big Ten opener and will lift the lid on the Big Ten schedule at Rutgers next Friday (Sept. 12) at 4 pm.

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Team Stats

Kayla Briggs

Bella Najera

Renee Watson

Sofia Beerworth

Players Mentioned

Sofia Beerworth

Kayla Briggs

Adelle Francis

Noelle Henning

Ava Lutke

Bella Najera