Oct. 31, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Despite battling neck-and-neck through much of the first half, No. 8 Michigan State scored just before halftime and rode that momentum to three more second-half goals on their way to a 5-1 win over the Penn State field hockey team in Saturday's regular season finale. The win capped off an undefeated 6-0 Big Ten mark for the league's regular-season champion and upped its winning streak to 10 games. The Nittany Lions enter the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 7 seed and will play second-seeded Ohio State in Thursday's opening round.
Penn State finished the regular season tied with Northwestern in sixth place, but the Wildcats earned the tiebreaker due to their 3-2 win over the Lions on Oct. 9. Ohio State enters as the second seed with one of its two conference losses coming to Penn State.
Senior Gina Bartolacci scored the Nittany Lions' lone goal, but it wasn't enough to offset a career day by Michigan State's Floor Rijpma, who netted a hat trick. Junior goalkeeper Ali Meves stood tall with five saves to up her season total to 100, the first Penn State goalkeeper to reach triple digits since 2003.
Michigan State jumped out to a quick lead when Rijpma converted on her first goal of the day and 16th of the season, finishing a pass off a penalty corner at the 3:37 mark.
The teams played toe-to-toe the next 30 minutes which included sensational defensive saves from seniors Brooke Hoffsmith and Amy Bonenberger. The offense had its chances as well, including great opportunities from Bonenberger and freshman Kelsey Amy. Michigan State goalkeeper Elissa Unger was strong, as she was all afternoon, in making both stops.
The Spartans made it 2-0 with under one minute remaining in the first half behind a beautiful conversion from Rijpma for her second goal of the game. Jessica Lindner made a beautiful centering pass from the end line to set up the redirection in front of the cage.
Jantine Steinmetz upped Michigan State's lead to 3-0 at 49:42 when she was sprung on a semi-breakaway, made a move around Meves, then found the open cage.
Penn State answered right back when Bartolacci scored her second goal in as many games off a penalty corner to make it 3-1 at 52:32. Amy's hard shot into traffic was double-deflected into the top corner of the goal. On the play, redshirt freshman Hannah Allison was credited with her first assist since the home opener.
Michigan State added two more goals, at 56:25 and 60:38 for the 5-1 final.
Final shots were 16-6 in favor of the Spartans while penalty corners were knotted at five apiece. Meves' five saves came in the first 65:05 while redshirt freshman saw her first action since Sept. 20 and made one stop. Unger finished the day with four saves.
It was also Senior Day as seven Nittany Lion seniors (Bartolacci, Bonenberger, Laura Cahill, Christine Dudek, Hoffsmith, Bethany Marvel and Jen Miller) were all honored prior to gametime.
The Lions now look ahead to next week's Big Ten Tournament hosted by Michigan State. The first-round game against Ohio State is set for Thursday while the conference semifinals are Friday and the championship game is Sunday. This marks the third straight season that the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes will square off in the Big Ten Tournament. Ohio State was victorious last year, 2-1 in overtime while Penn State won, 3-0 in 2007. Check back to GoPSUsports.com throughout the coming days for complete news and notes from before, during and after the action.
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