Aug 25, 2013

Box Score

East Lansing, Mich. - Freshmen Maria Stephans and Taylor Swittel both recorded their first collegiate goals, but it wasn't enough as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee fell to Michigan State 5-2 Sunday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium.

Milwaukee (0-2-0) used 19 players in the game, including seven freshmen. The five goals are the most the Panthers have conceded since a 5-1 loss to Oakland in 2001.

Michigan State moves to 2-0-0 on the year.

"It was a disappointing result. In our program, it's an unacceptable result and we just have to work forward and make sure we're taking care of every moment on and off the field to prepare for difficult opponents," Milwaukee head coach Greg Henschel said. "We can't let matches like this be an excuse. The bottom line is, this is not the type of result we're looking for and we'll show up this week and work forward."

Milwaukee got its first goal of the season after Morgan LaPlant was taken down in the box in the 74th minute. Stephans stepped up to take the penalty kick and calmly slotted it into the side corner to put Milwaukee on the board.

Five minutes later, Milwaukee struck again. Callie O'Donnell slotted a through ball from the center to a streaking Swittel coming in from the right. The freshman collected the ball behind the defense and curved it right around the oncoming Spartan keeper for her first collegiate goal.

"That's something that's optimistic," Henschel said. "I told the girls I'm proud that we scored two goals today. I'm proud to be a part of this team. It's no surprise that freshman scored because there's a lot of them on this roster so that's bound to happen. It shows some great passion and conviction within our roster and through the depth of our roster and that was certainly encouraging. There's definitely some optimism and as I told the team, I'm proud that we found two goals today because that's not an easy thing to do."

Michigan State got on the board early, scoring the game's first goal in the 10th minute of play. The Spartans floated a ball in from the corner area where Erica Goodenough was just able to get a head to the ball, popping it straight up where Rachel Van Poppelen was the first to find it and head the ball into the back of the net.

Milwaukee suffered some hard luck as MSU added another just before half. Allyson Krause perfectly timed her run and snuck behind the Panther defense, where UWM keeper Paige Lincicum came off her line. Krause rocketed a shot that was blocked by the sliding Lincicum, but the ball caromed off a Panther defender and into the goal.

The Spartans came out of the break hot, getting goals from Jessica White (54th minute), Marisa Oleksiak (57th) and Krause (60th).

UWM returns home this coming weekend, playing host to Indiana Friday evening. Kick off is set for 5:30 p.m. from Engelmann Stadium.