There isn’t a whole lot left that Michigan State’s women’s soccer program hasn’t accomplished under Jeff Hosler in recent years. A Big Ten tournament championship is one of the feats still out there.
The Spartans will get another shot at it Friday night, Nov. 13, facing host Purdue in the Big Ten tournament final in West Lafayette, Indiana. The game is televised on Big Ten Network.
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The Spartans are the 4 seed, though ranked No. 3 nationally, with Purdue the 3 seed and ranked 13th. The Boilermakers beat MSU 2-1 on Oct. 11 on the same field.
MSU, which won Big Ten regular season championships in 2022 and 2023, has twice reached this stage of the Big Ten tournament, losing the championship game to Penn State in 2022 and, last season, falling in penalty kicks to Washington. Both of those games were played in neutral sites. The league moved the final to the higher seed’s campus starting this year to increase attendance.
That Washington loss a year ago was particularly painful for the Spartans, because MSU dominated the game in every way but the scoreboard, which finished in a 1-1 tie, even after two overtimes. That was on the Spartans’ minds when Washington visited DeMartin Stadium earlier this season. MSU took its revenge with a decisive 3-0 win.
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“I think our group feels kind of refreshed that we’re in this week at this point,” Hosler said. “From the start of the season, there’s been so much conversation about where we are, what we can be, what we’re out here to play for. When you’ve got one week of prep, playing for one match, for one trophy, I think the focus becomes very singular.
“We know we’ve got a really good game plan, knowing how the first match (against Purdue) went, the tactics for both sides. There were a lot of game situations in it. We scored early. They fought back. They took the lead. We had to fight back. So I think there’s a lot of things that we’ve seen pictures of that we feel really prepared for already.
“I think our group’s highly motivated for this opportunity. This is something we have not done. … It means a lot to this group.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU women’s soccer gets another shot at elusive Big Ten tournament championship Friday against Purdue
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
