Oct. 29, 2009

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EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's soccer team will travel to Illinois and Iowa this weekend for its final Big Ten road trip of the season. MSU will take on the Fighting Illini at 8 p.m. ET on Friday (Oct. 30) night and will then head to Iowa City, Iowa, to take on the Hawkeyes on Sunday (Nov. 1) at 2 p.m. Friday's game against Illinois will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network and aired on Sunday (Nov. 1) at Noon ET.

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The Last Time Out: MSU notched its first comeback win of the year, defeating Minnesota, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium. Megan Pines got her first career goal to tie the game in the 72nd minute and then Laura Heyboer gave MSU the lead for good 1:26 later.

Illinois Series History: MSU trails the all-time series with Illinois, 3-10-2. The two teams last met in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament in Iowa City, Iowa, last season where after 110 minutes of play, MSU eventually advanced on penalty kicks. The Spartans will be looking for their first win over the Illini since 2002, when they won 2-0 in East Lansing.

MASH Unit: The Green and White has lost four players to season-ending injuries this season, including three starters. Senior Kate Rehor (knee), a key reserve midfielder, was the first to go down in September, followed by fellow senior captain and four-year starter, Lauren Sinacola (knee). MSU lost freshman midfield starter Jordan Mueller (knee) in mid-October and sophomore All-America and leading scorer, Laura Heyboer (leg), suffered a season-ending injury when she scored the game-winner against Minnesota last weekend.

Home Domination: MSU's loss to Wisconsin on Oct. 23 snapped a impressive school-record 18-game home unbeaten streak. MSU went 9-0-2 at DeMartin Stadium in 2008 and went 6-0-1 to start this season. The previous home-unbeaten streak was 15 games and began Oct. 18, 1988 and spanned 15 games (14-0-1) through the entire `89 campaign.

Strong Team Defense: With losing some of the team's main offensive contributors, the Spartans have relied on their strong team defense this season. The Green and White's .59 goals-against average ranks second in the Big Ten and 16th nationally.

This year's 3-2 win over Penn State marked the first time since Oct. 19, 2008, in a loss at Wisconsin that the Spartans surrendered more than one goal - a streak of 15 consecutive games.

Flietstra Continues to Shine: Sophomore goalkeeper Jill Flietstra has been one of the chief reasons the Spartans have led the Big Ten in defense this season. The Hudsonville native's .880 save percentage leads the Big Ten and ranks 15th in the nation while her goals-against average of .59 also leads the conference and is 20th nationally.

Flietstra has three shutout streaks of at least 240 minutes this season as the first spanned 246:24 in three games (Oakland - UCSB) while the second covered action in four games (UCSB - Detroit) and lasted 252:58. Her most recent streak began after giving up a goal at Purdue and extending into the first half of the Northwestern game - a total of 311:31.

Her 12 saves in a 1-0 loss at Indiana earlier this season were the most since Nicole Galas also recorded 12 on Oct. 20, 2006 against Ohio State.