Michigan State women's soccer continues to roll in rout of Nebraska

Nathaniel Bott, Lansing State Journal

The No. 5-ranked Michigan State women's soccer team was looking to keep its offense rolling after opening Big Ten play with a 6-0 win last week at Maryland.

On Thursday night, the Spartans hosted Nebraska for its conference home opener, and MSU was able to stay hot by netting four goals in a 4-1 win to remain undefeated through nine games.

"We have great crowds, great support, and our play has to drive that," MSU coach Jeff Hosler said. "I thought we were a little flat in the first half. I challenged our group at halftime and we were a lot better at winning balls and keeping territory in the second half."

Providence transfer forward Meg Hughes opened the scoring for the Spartans with her fifth goal of the season in the 20th minute. Nebraska found an equalizer late in the first half, but Purdue transfer midfielder Emily Matthews found the back of the net for her sixth of the season less than two minutes later on a long range shot to put MSU ahead at halftime.

MSU controlled play in the second half and got some insurance when graduate senior Justina Gaynor found senior forward Jordyn Wickes in the 69th minute for a goal to increase MSU's lead.

Sophomore defender Ella Janz got her second goal in as many games with just over 10 minutes left to put the result to bed. It's the third time in nine games where MSU has scored four or more goals and the Spartans remain undefeated through nine games.

"This league is great, and Nebraska was co-champs with us last year and returned nine starters from that group and went to the Elite Eight, so to score that many goals and have that many chances has put us in a really good spot," Hosler said. "As we look forward, we are going to have to be a lot more efficient. We had a lot of moments that we missed, and some of it is discipline, and some of it is we have to flat out be more efficient."

MSU (7-0-2) will play at No. 9 Penn State (8-1-1) on Sunday at 2pm and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on X @Nathaniel_Bott

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State women's soccer continues to roll in rout of Nebraska

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