Maryland women’s soccer drops one-sided match against Michigan State, 4-0

Maggie Illig netted Michigan State’s fourth goal of the day with just over a minute remaining, punctuating the Spartans’ blowout victory over Maryland. On a day that saw Lauren DeBeau score her team-high seventh goal this season, the Terps could share in none of the glory as they never got particularly close.

The drizzly Sunday afternoon saw Maryland women’s soccer get handled with relative ease by its Big Ten rival, as nothing Maryland did on offense could stop Michigan State from achieving its eighth shutout of the season.

The Terps found themselves at the unfortunate end of their most one-sided match of the season, the fourth straight conference loss sending Maryland even further down in the standings.

“This is probably the best team we’ve seen in the Big Ten,” coach Meghan Ryan Nemzer said. “Some injuries that we’re having right now and the travel probably stacks up a little bit right now …I think it’s a combination of everything.”

The Terps entered just 1-3 in Big Ten action, while the Spartans entered undefeated with a 3-0-1 record.

This match started similarly to the Wisconsin match for the Terps, as the Spartans offense put pressure on the Maryland back line from the opening kick. Their first shot came six minutes in, but Emerson Sargeant’s header sailed too high.

Michigan State completely dominated control of the ball through the first half of the first period, as the slippery field lent to a more physical style of play. Multiple Terps continuously muffed kicks in their own territory.

The first shot from Maryland didn’t come until the 25th minute, when Ava Morales broke away with only one player to beat, only for the attempt to fly just over the crossbar. By this point, the Spartans had already taken four shots. 

Justina Gaynor tested Emory Wegener 29 minutes in with an attempt from point blank range, but Maryland’s goalkeeper produced a highlight-worthy diving block to fend off the Spartans’ sixth shot of the afternoon.

Three minutes later, Camryn Evans took another try. Wegener got in the way in time but the ball squirted out of her hands. Lauren DeBeau recovered the ball as Wegener raced back to the net, but the Maryland defense fended off the second shot in ten seconds as Wegener recorded yet another stop.

DeBeau finally got one to go through for the Spartans at 37’, the tenth attempt of the day for Michigan State.

The Terps went into the half at the wrong end of a commanding 11:1 shot disparity, in desperate need of an answer to the Spartans’ scoring attack. Six different players took a shot in the first 45 minutes, and Michigan State took seven corner kicks to Maryland’s two.

Maryland came out of the half on the right foot, when Mia Isaac took the Terps’ second shot of the game 52 seconds in.

As if to respond to this semblance of positive momentum, Celia Gaynor struck again for the Spartans at 49:10 to give her team a 2-0 lead. 

The Terps couldn’t manage to pick themselves up in the minutes that followed, as any subsequent trips upfield were quickly put out by the Spartans. 

The Spartans took further advantage of Maryland’s continued lack of a proper response in the 70th minute, when Zivana Labovic got a turn to pile on to the lead. Diodati got her second assist of the day, and the Terps got back to work in their attempt to evade the shutout.

For good measure, Illig added one more with just over a minute remaining after Spartans’ coach Jeff Hosler took out all of his starters. This pushed the lead to four, and the Terps finally wrapped up their worst throttling of the season.

“Sometimes you gotta chalk it up to not being our day, and it wasn’t our day today,” Nemzer said. “The thing that excites me is I can’t wait to watch film and go break this down, because there’s a lot of teaching moments.”

The loss dropped Maryland to 2-5-5. The Terps’ next chance to find the win column will be against Penn State on Sunday.